ORD FOCUS AND BUDGET PLAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00514R000100060019-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 28, 2002
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: October 24, 1972
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 200 r clA-RDP75B00514R000100060
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
SUBJECT: ORD Focus and Budget Plan
1. In the Executive Director-Comptroller's Program Review
meeting with the Acting Deputy Director for Science and Technology
on 22 June 1972, it was agreed that ORD should concentrate on
advanced technology bearing on intelligence problems without
necessarily relating to short-term operational requirements. While
ORD would consider research and development needs of other CIA
components and other agencies where pertinent, ORD would normally
not pursue development beyond engineering feasibility testing nor
would it be primarily concerned with short-range engineering work
to meet specific operational requirements.
2. It was also agreed that ORD should have an annual budget
based on a fixed percentage of the total Agency R&D budget. It was
agreed that this method of budgeting for advanced R&D is as valid
and defensible as any other known method. It was recognized that a
proposed ORD resource level for a given year would no longer be tied
to a specific list of projects, and that this procedure would make the
annual level of ORD resources subject to the more directly mission-
oriented remainder of the Agency's R&D budget without annual disputes
over allocations. It was also recognized that the "fixed" percentage
would have to be adjustable until experience had clearly indicated what
the appropriate percentage should be.
3. ORD's overall program, as well as individual areas of activity,
will be exposed to other CIA elements engaged in R&D activities
through the Agency's R&D Board and its Technical Coordinating
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Committee as appropriate. It is expected that the program be
responsive to the needs of other components for exploratory
developmental work and that it take appropriate account of R&D
work being done elsewhere. While performance in exploratory
research cannot be measured quantitatively in the short term,
ORD will provide to senior management an annual review of
expenditures and evaluation of activities against long term
Agency R&D objectives.
4. Subsequent to the meeting, O/PPB proposed that ORD be
given 30 percent of the total Agency R &D budget for FY 1973 and
FY 1974, excluding year-end funding, other Agency funding, reserve
releases, and transfers from operating components within the Agency.
The 30 percent formula was based on the average percentage of
ORD's budget (contract dollars) in FY 1971 and FY 1972 along with
the subjective assessment that this seemed a reasonable percentage.
DDS&T did not demur. This arrangement should be re-examined
in light of experience next Spring during the review of the FY 1974
Operating Program and FY 1975 Budget Estimate. It is presumed
that the ORD budget will be fixed at certain appropriate points in
time but will not be subject to change every time mission-oriented
RD&E programs are reprogrammed.
5. It is assumed that in arriving at annual R&D budgets, an
increase for inflation will be included wherever appropriate.
CONCURRENCE:
J
Director of Planning, Pr amming,
and Budgeting
Assistant Deputy Director for cience
and Technology
:2- ~QC?7
Date
Executive Director-Comptroller Date
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