DEAR MR. DULLES:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01370R000100090025-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 1998
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: April 12, 1956
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP80-0137OR000100090025-5
B-127069 April 12, 1956
Honorable Allen W. Dulles
Director, Ce.tral Intelligence Agency
Reference is made to your letter of February 18, 1956, concern-
ing the payment of cash awards to Agency personnel as an incentive
for acquiring and maintaining competence in a foreign language.
You state that, in order effectively to accomplish its functions,
your Agency requires an increasingly greater number of personnel who
are proficient in one or more foreign languages and that future
requirements ray suddenly generate a demand far in excess of the
Agency's capabilities. You further state that such qualified indi-
viduals cannot be recruited from sources outside the Agency because
the source either is not adequate or there is insuffieient time to
make the source available and still observe proper security restric-
tions, To over come the problem and meet the future needs of your
Agency you proposed to establish a language resources program. In
order to provide the necessary incentive among Agency personnel under
this program it is proposed to make certain payments to thern for
acquiring competence in a language and additional periodic payments
for maintaining such competence at fixed levels of proficiency.
Under the program the relative difficulties of various languages will
be evaluated and standards of competence in their use will be estab-
lished.
On the foregoing you request our opinion as to whether such pay-
ments may properly be paid (1) under the authority of the Government
Employees' Incentive Awards Act, approved September 1, 1954, 6R Stat.
1112, 5 U.S.C. Sup. II, 2121; or (2) the Central Intelligence Agency
Act of 3949, 43 Stat. 208, 50 U.S.C. 403a.
Section 3014(a) of the Government .Employees' Incentive Awards Act,
quoted in your letter, provides:
"The head of each department is authorized to pay
cash awards to, and to incur necessary expenses for the
honorary recognition of, civilian officers and employees
of the Government who by their suggestions, invention*,
superior accotrplishments, or other personal efforts con-
tribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement
tip Is.
Rt*- of 11 Oorttt ant by O U bas
dVbfto4. that
ClJi has no 66jeetian to declass
it costa?ns 1y'.eru fEan of CIA
;lte&.ot ttr R midst main
es9f,d ti TS S C
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 CIA-RDP80-018000'1 O b025-5
L) Ii oe st ins nuMing of etA interest
L- t! Sly Reviewer 1C G (4 1 ---
 Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP80-01370R000100090025-5
B-127069
of Government operations or who perform special acts or
services in the public interest in connection with or
related to their official employment."
From the facts presented in your letter it does not appear that
the basis of your proposal to pay cash awards to personnel who 146-M
and maintain a degree of proficiency in a foreign language--presum-
ably on their -awn time and at their own expense--bears any relation-
ship to the criteria set forth in the quoted statute as implemented
by regulations issued by the Civil Service Commission. Such criteria
condition the granting of monetary rewards to personnel for suggestions,
inventions, or personal efforts which contribute to improvements or
economies in Government operations. it seems to us that payment of
cash awards to your personnel under the proposed language resources
program is, in practical effect, nothing more than the holding out of
a cash bonus or premium to an employee as an inducement to improve
himself in order to help the Agency. Accordingly, we do not feel
warranted in regarding the Government employee's Incentive Awards Act
as authorizing the payment of cash awards to personnel of your Agency
for participating in the proposed language resources program.
With reference, to the propriety of paying the subject ca.--.h awards
under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1919,
your letter quotes section 1C(a) thereof, in pertinent part, as follows:
"Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, sums
made available to the Agency by appropriation or otherwise
may be expended for purposes necessary- to carry out its
functions, including* * *."
In addition there are observed the provisions of section 10(b) that--
"The sums made available to the Agency nay be
expended without regard to the provisions of law and rema-
lations relating to the expenditure of Government funds * *."
In view of the broad discretion vested by these statutory provisions
in your Agency to determine its expenditures without regard to the pro-
visions of any other law or regulation governing the expenditure of
public funds, and since you express the belief that the proposed
language resources program is necessary to carry out the Agency's func-
tions, we agree with your view that the provisions of the Central
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP80-01370R000100090025-5
 Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP80-0137OR000100090025-5
B-127069
Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 constitute euffictent authority to make
cash payments to Agency personnel participating in the proposed prof ram:.
Your questions are answered accordingly.
Sincerely yours,
Comptroller General
of the United States
-3-
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP80-0137OR000100090025-5