PHASE IV LONG-RANGE PLAN ACTION ITEMS
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP85B01152R000901240028-4
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
C
Document Page Count:
12
Document Creation Date:
December 21, 2016
Document Release Date:
June 13, 2008
Sequence Number:
28
Case Number:
Publication Date:
June 17, 1983
Content Type:
MEMO
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Body:
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.._gistry
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
Phase IV Long-Range Plan Action Items
FROM: Edward L. Sherman
EXTENSION
NO.
ADPP 125-83-42
Director of Finance
1212 Key Building
DATE
17 June 1983
TO: (Officer designation, room nu r o
building)
J U1983? DATE
7?'
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
Q
~q 0'Q
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
INITIALS
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
1. DDA
7D18 Headquarters
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FORM 61 USE PREVIOUS
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CONFIDENTIAL
17 JUN 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Harry E. Fitzwater
Deputy Director for Administration
FROM: Edward L. Sherman
Director of Finance
SUBJECT: Phase IV Long-Range Plan Action Items
REFERENCE: DDA Memo #83-0140/9, Same Subject
1. Introduction
This memorandum responds to your request for a long term
strategy for automation of the Agency financial functions, and
addresses OF capabilities in providing financial support to
headqaurters and field operations. The memo in total constitutes
a plan for the Modernization of Agency Financial Systems (MAFS)
and will be referred to as such in future communications.
2. OF Assumptions on Future of Agency Systems Automation
a. This office is convinced that, during the next 10 to 20
years, the Agency, and especially the DDA components, will be
required to rapidly expand use of more sophisticated automated
systems applications. Regardless of future expansion or
contraction of Agency operations, automated systems and office
automation aids offer the only viable means to increase real
productivity of Agency personnel including all levels of
management. The existing major OF automated systems are
obsolescent in terms of present day operations, necessitate far
too much manual processing, and contain software packages which
are inflexible and costly to maintain. On-going initiatives to
rectify these problems will carry OF into a new generation of
high technology which will be capable of servicing more than one
function at a time. These developments will tend to reorganize
the present divisions of labor (logistics, finance, personnel,
etc.) along somewhat different lines requiring dissimilar levels
and combinations of skills from the way we operate today. How
quickly we reach this stage depends in part on still further
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technological developments and Agency decisions to make the
necessary investments. Our present developments of ACIS, LIMS
and a modern field accounting system are all steps in this
direction. They have, to varying degrees, certain futuristic
elements such as common data bases, inputs by originators of
transactions rather than support specialists, automated
performance of manual support functions such as translation,
recordation and manipulation of data; auditing and other
enforcement techniques for controlling and protecting resources
and upholding regulatory and legal authorities; and the automated
production of data and other services required to meet legal and
managerial requirements.
3. Long Term Strategy for Automation of Agency Financial
Functions
a. The requirements generated in rendering financial support
to intelligence functions makes these systems considerably
different from similiar financial systems in the rest of
Government or in private industry. The complications we are
required to live with, principally to provide security and cover,
are literally unique to CIA. Consequently at this time we cannot
beg, borrow or buy major new systems which come anywhere near to
meeting our needs. (This may change as the software industry
expands and software itself becomes more flexible to change and
applicability to various data bases expands.) The construction
of such systems, whether by Agency or contractor workforces, is a
very long and arduous task constantly subject to changing
technology and user requirements. The LIMS and ACIS systems
presently under development will each take at least seven years
from initiation to full implementation. In the meantime we have
no choice but to continue to make changes to the presently
obsolescent systems that LIMS and ACIS are designed to replace
because of mandatory legislative and management requirements
which cannot be put off for seven years. This double resource
requirement will be a tremendous burden for the Agency to carry
but, at this time, there is no real choice for management to make
if our systems are to be capable of meeting the requirements of
the 80s and 90s. Our bright light is the expanded use of
professional computers (desk-top) in office automation. At the
1983 National Computer Conference, the experts predicted that the
professional computers would become the "hub" of office
automation and could perform as much as ninety (90) per cent of
the computing. It is the opinion of OMB that the expanding
universe of high technology being rapidly assimulated into the
private sector will force the government, regardless of cost,
into automation of exotic levels to provide all of management,
including the presidential level, with the information necessary
to make decisions, again this was substantiated by the industry
leaders and financial analysts at the National Computer
Conference. Legislation such as the Prompt Payment and Federal
Manager's Financial Integrity Acts will become more frequent as
Congress attempts to control government expenditures. The
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Department of Treasury continues with large scale initiatives
which will dramatically change the manner in which our operations
are conducted, not only with Treasury, but internally as well.
These are but examples of enormous changes which will continue to
evolve and to which the Agency, and OF, have no option but to
respond.
b. At the present time there are three major systems under
development which relate to financial management. The Automated
Compensation and Information System (ACIS) will replace the
Agency's decade old payroll system now fraught with software
maintenance problems and an alarming amount of manual
processing. ACIS looks to solving not only these and other
immediate concerns, but also to create a structural design
capability of utilizing present and future state-of-the-art
technologies. An on going effort scheduled for implementation
within the next five years, ACIS will be the forerunner of
systems which will directly interface with each other, eliminate
batching and key-punch processing, issue reports on a real-time
basis, and vastly improve OF's capability for total Agency
support. The major goal of ACIS is to provide the Agency with a
comprehensive and viable payroll system that includes a rapid,
flexible query capability and reduces the manual workload of the
present system.
c. The Logistics Integrated Management System (LIMS) will be
an integrated management system designed to combine all of the
logistics and related financial processes in the area of property
management. This will include requisitioning, procurement,
distribution, receiving, payment, catalog, and inventory. The
system will function in an environment involving interface
(interactive) with the Agency financial accounting and budgeting
processes. LIMS will combine the functions of existing systems
including CONIF, ICS, SECOND, AWCS, PDMIS, and FARS. LIMS is a
system that truly integrates logistics and finance functions in
that the procurement and receiving information which is so
critical to payment and expenditure functions will all be
automatically linked and processed.
d. The third system, The Field Accounting System (FAS), may
not yet be recognized by anyone outside of OF as a major system
because only recently have we come to regard it as such. Our
intention is to develop an automated accounting system to record
and report financial accounting responsibilities from all Agency
installations, outside of headquarters, on a worldwide basis.
Once recorded, the system will verify and sort the data into any
desired format. Accumulated data will be electronically
transmitted to headquarters where the data will be passed
directly into the Agency's General Accounting System (GAS). The
immediate pay-off will be greatly improved security through the
complete elimination of manual bookkeeping to further reduce
documents and forms held in the field, fast and simple record
destruction capability, user input which does not require
technical training, automatic accounting, and, to some degree
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auditing, an improvement in accounting accuracy, timing and
detail, and real time accounting support to management in
headquarters and the field. This project is presently in its
initial phase. Some experiments have been made at field stations
to demonstrate the validity of doing the field accounting on word
processors instead of by written records. We have also
experimented with sending field accountings to headquarters
electronically and using GAS to produce reports for field
management. Much more needs to be done but this project is
currently moving at an extremely slow pace because we do not have
the work force to assign to it. We were denied resources in both
our FY84 and FY85 requests to assist in this effort. OF Long-
range plans include the use of Tempest approved secure line
facsimile equipment that will provide the capability of
transmitting authentic reproductions of receipts concurrent with
the submission of the accounting. This field accounting system,
coupled with facsimile transmissions, would truly speed up OF
support capability and solve the long standing problem of having
unprocessed Class B accountings resulting in incomplete and non-
current financial records.
g. In the bill paying area there are four initiatives
working. The most ambitious is the development of an automated
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travel procedure. Agency travel accountings are processed on an
entirely manual basis. The system is cumbersome, filled with
approval and certification difficulties, and subject to backlogs
during peak travel periods. In recent years, this traditional
method of accounting has become much more difficult and involved
with the establishment of high rate geographic area and
lodgings - plus rates for subsistence expenses. Currently, GSA
is considering a flat-rate locality based per diem. Depending
upon the type and complexity of the travel involved, processing
of a travel voucher can take from hours to days, with a large
part of the transactions repetitive in nature. The travel
function lends itself directly to an automated process and a
great deal of experimentation on this subject has been expended
by GAO, Agriculture, and other sectors of the government.
Automated systems software for travel processing already exists
commercially. With the proper study given to the specific
requirements of Agency travel, such software could be adapted for
OF use. Manual audit effort would focus only on those claims
outside the edits and parameters of the system and significantly
reduce processing time. Developed as an on-line function, OF
envisages travel automation as eventually encompassing,
electronically, the total travel process, i.e., transmission and
approvals of travel authorizations, advances, submission of
accountings, teleticketing, advance of funds, certification,
etc. In addition to being cost efficient and obviously
effective, an automated travel system would, by its very design,
create, for the first time in the Agency, a central data base for
travel costs which could be accessed for all types of travel
information desired and in any format. Detailed information on
overall travel costs is not now available and can be obtained
only through exhaustive and costly manual research. Funds
requested by OF for this planning are in the FY84 budget. Follow
on costs have not been included in the 85 budget and could run
or more. In addition to travel, ODP is presently
developing a series of changes to GAS, FRS and CONIF to permit
user entry of commitments for procurement orders placed with the
Office of Logistics and the automated obligation of funds once
procurement contracts are let. This process, which should be
ready in FY83, will relieve some of the present manual effort
going into processing of invoices under the Prompt Payment Act.
Although OF succeeded in meeting the provisions of the Prompt
Payment Act, this success has been accomplished by adding
additional manual complications to an already overburdened
payment system. Once the commitments project is completed we
hope to develop a Fedstrip-Milstrip interface with the O/L
inventory control system. This billing and payment system is
currently a labor-intensive process consuming many hours of
effort. Payment vouchers are manually prepared and sometimes
reach 125 posting voucher pages in one accounting submission. OF
plans to automate this process to directly interface with
receiving data on the ICS system and eliminate almost entirely
the cumbersome manual effort now required. The final initiative
in this group is to establish an automated system for tracking
GSA work orders for which we have advanced funds to GSA. Under
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CONFIDENTIAL
present procedures we have only a tedious manual procedure for
determining which work orders are completed and can be expensed
and which are still pending completion or have been withdrawn. A
systems assist would save labor and increase efficiency in this
area. Present planning is at a halt due to lack of programming
resources in OF.
h. With respect to disbursement functions, there are five
initiatives that would materially improve the effectiveness of
disbursing and banking operations. The first is the automation
of cash accounting for disbursing centers. At present, the
vouchers authorizing disbursement of official funds are forwarded
to a data base center, key punched, and processed into GAS the
following day. Reports on cash general ledger accounts are not
available to Monetary Division until three days following any
given cash transaction. The daily reconciliation of cash
accounts is an involved, labor-intensive effort requiring many
hours of time. OF plans to implement an on-line capability at
the 6E29 disbursing office which would permit those cash
transactions to be immediately recorded into GAS and charged
against the proper cash accounts. Following implementation and
refinement of this process using 6E29 as a testbed, the on-line
cash recordation capability will be expanded to include thirteen
other disbursing functions within the headquarters area of
operations. Long range planning ultimately envisages world-wide
control of Agency cash assets through use of the forthcoming
Field Accounting System. Resources for this project will not be
available until FY84 at the earliest. Other initiatives are the
automation of the foreign currency inventory, automated
reconciliation of Agency checking accounts, automating the
inventory of banking asset security clearances, and automating
the inventory of cashier checks and commodity assets (gold).
i. In the accounting field, we have a large number of work
orders which are necessary to maintain the system and provide
small enhancements to GAS, and we face the fact that GAS is a
major system which does not meet forseeable future requirements
and is already showing signs of age. There is nothing in the OF
budgets for FY83, 84 and 85 to even begin analyzing this
problem. This matter will become increasingly important as time
passes.
j. With respect to the Financial Resources System (FRS), we
believe there is a need for a strong central authority to be
esbablished over the formatting and printing of administrative
reports, especially financial reports. FRS is currently being
co-managed by this office and the Comptroller. Aside from those
reports required or requested to be produced by the Comptroller
no one point in the Agency exists for determining whether or not
a report is needed, should be retained or ought to be
eliminated. FRS now generates 2690 reports in 180 formats. The
new commitments change to GAS will increase these formats to
194. Centralized management of FRS is the only viable means of
controlling that system's production requirements.
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4. Hardware Plans for the Future
In the formulation of long-range planning, OF is aware not
only of where this office is going, but also what has to be done
to get there. Primarily, this involves sustained development,
over a period of time and within the constraints of budgetary
resources, of a truly responsive, flexible, and futuristic OF
financial system built around professional computers (that also
do word processing) and main frame computers with communication
capability between the two types of hardware. A need is also
seen for portable professional computers to be used in the
contract audit area.
5. OF Capabilites for Providing Financial Support to
Headquarters and Field Components
a. The previous section of this paper identifies many of the
problems and "systems" solutions we hope to apply to those
problems of providing financial support to the Agency. This
section will address problems for which we do not presently
forsee a "data processing" solution.
b. Distributed Financial Systems
For many years the financial systems of the Agency have been
organized on a distributed basis. Every system is essentially a
centralized system in that accounting data eventually feeds into
a central accounting system, payroll data feeds into a central
payroll system, bill paying data feeds into a central bill paying
system and the disbursement of funds is essentially the
centralized responsibility of OF. The distributed process is
reflected in the fact that all systems are dependent upon the
inputs of data and the partial or total processing of data by
components spread throughout the Agency at headquarters and
overseas. Despite regulations and procedures established by OF,
much leeway in determining levels of detail, interpretation of
regulations and application of procedures is left to the more
than 200 budget and finance officers who serve in positions not
under the direct control of the Director of Finance. This system
has been a mixed blessing in the past. While it has placed great
power over finance systems in the hands of general support and
operations officers, thereby assuring maximum flexibility and
responsiveness to operational needs, it has at the same time,
weakened effective central management, financial discipline, and
caused a whole host of career management problems in the
development of a strong cadre of budget and finance officers.
c. Impact of Systems Automation
The development of automated financial systems, described in
the third section of this paper will in all probability lead to
major changes in the organization and staffing requirements for
these Agency wide systems in the next 10 to 20 years. We do not
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believe the Agency will have the ability to respond quickly and
effectively to these changes unless all budget and finance
personnel are put under the operational command of the Director
of Finance. We also believe there are distinct advantages to
putting all finance careerists under Finance command even under
present financial operations. We believe we can do more with the
same numbers of people by providing quicker response to changing
priorities. We believe we can improve career management leading
to a stronger finance product through better training, and
assignments. And we believe we can improve financial discipline
and at the same time provide better, more flexible support by
giving the Office of Finance a stronger command role over
financial systems.
d. Centralization of Finance Activity
The forthcoming technological changes facing the Agency will
impact heavily on OF. OF sees the infrastructure of the MF
Career Service changing over the next decade with a heavy
emphasis on centralization of financial activity and fewer
detailed assignments outside of OF. This will become more and
more a reality as the state-of-the-art moves finance into a
"paperless mode". It is certainly not too soon to address the
most difficult problem of preparing MF Careerists for the new
environment in which they will function.
e. Personnel Expertise
This office desperately needs to strengthen the level of
personnel expertise in the several functional work areas
involved, i.e., general finance, budget, monetary, commercial
audit, systems and procedures, career management and general
support. During the past several years, the necessity of
staffing unforeseen position requirements outside control of OF,
has forced this office to move employees between assignments more
rapidly than normally desirable which has resulted in a lack of
experience, particularly in the multifaceted area of general
finance.
f. OF Control of Detailed Positions
Control of detailed positions would permit OF to plan
effectively for entirely new disciplines soon to be required and
proper career development of MF careerists. Of equal importance,
OF could establish a basic, uniform office staffing structure
which would permit uniformity of responsibilities associated with
like grades and positions throughout the Agency, staff individual
offices based on perceived and current requirements, and obtain
the flexibility in personnel assignments necessary to slow down
the rotational process to a realistic level. What is required is
a dedicated "down the road" planning effort by OF management for
assimilation and implementation of new technology and, of even
greater importance, to accomplish the training required by new
disciplines and a phased reorganization of the total finance
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mission. To ignore or delay facing this most serious requirement
will result in confusion, unpreparedness, loss of morale, and an
inept effort. OF management cannot properly meet this challenge
without control of the totality of the MF Career Service.
g. Overall Planning for Systems Development
The Agency approach to automation lacks, and should have,
overall direction and planning for systems development. The
financial activities of OF affect every component within the
Agency, regardless of mission or function. Given the potential
of automation to simplify methods of accomplishing almost any
desired result, systems planning by individual offices, will
result only in noncompatible systems, redundant effort, and
excessive costs.
h. Necessity for Interactive Systems
Agency investment in automation will not be served well
unless systems are designed to be interactive with each other.
OF systems, in particular, must be developed with the capability
of access to DO and other systems for selected purposes such as
special authorities, approvals, existence of fiscal annexes,
administrative plans, and countless other financially related
matters. It makes no sense to continue individual efforts in a
vacuum and succeed only in accomplishing limited goals when so
much more is possible with the technology at hand. OF strongly
recommends that senior Agency management address this real need
within the near future.
i. Agency Travel Regulations
With respect to travel, the Agency travel
regulations are far more detailed than other similar government
issuances. This results from the Agency's travel policies being
a composite of the Federal Travel Regulations, Standardized
Regulations, Foreign Affairs Manual, and the Agency's special
authorities. The problem is further exacerbated by the
organizational structure of the Agency (Independent Offices and
several components within each of four large directorates) with
individual travel approving officers for each entity. There are
some forty travel approving officers throughout the Agency.
Most, if not all, government agencies administer travel policy
and approvals through a centralized travel office which not only
ensures uniform application of travel entitlements and allowances
but also provides the expertise necessary for developing internal
travel regulations with enough flexibility to meet specific
operational needs. It is apparent to this Office that the
Agency's very real desire and need for flexibility in travel
authorizations to meet special and unique situations has been
inhibited unnecessarily by our detailed regulations. Agency
travel policy is being continually revised to address and remedy
problems of particular directorates, only to create new problems
for other sectors of the Agency.
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j. Standardized Federal Travel Regulations
The Interagency Travel and Allowance Committee, and others,
are heading a government wide initiative to publish Standardized
Federal Travel Regulations. These regulations are intended to
conform all government travel, eliminate the need for writing
travel regulations at the agency level and to ensure uniform and
equitable treatment to travelers on a worldwide basis. It is a
certainty that, at some point in time, standardized regulations
for all of government will become a reality. Ideally at that
time, our travel and allowance regulations should contain only
exceptions to those regulations which are required by security,
cover, and operational considerations. This will not happen,
particularly in the area of travel, under the present travel
approval system.
k. Central Travel Office
OF recommends that all headquarters travel approval and
certifications within the Agency be accomplished by one
centralized travel office under the control of OF. In terms of
current day thinking and organizational structure, this would
appear to be both revolutionary in concept and unworkable in
reality. Although not in hand or place, the technology now
exists to centralize all travel activity, improve support
reaction capability to all components, simplify travel policy
administration, and ensure fair and equitable treatment to all
Agency travelers. Implementation of a truly centralized travel
office would restrict all headquarters travel approving
authorities below some level, (perhaps the deputy director level)
to only that centralized office. For the most part, components
would become requestors of travel to be charged against funds
budgeted from that component. Such requests would be
electronically transmitted to the central office for approval
with no hard copy travel order required and effective regardless
of the physical location of the requestor. Travel accountings
would also be accomplished electronically. Operational
considerations affecting approval judgements would be
incorporated into the travel request and possibly include
indicators such as routine, priority, and immediate approval
responses requested. Appropriate turn-around response time would
be taken as required. The foregoing recommendation is not only
possible but very much to be desired. The following benefits
would immediately be obtained from centralization of headquarters
travel:
1. Uniform application of travel entitlements to
headquarters personnel on a world wide basis.
2. Reductions in number and simplification of Agency
travel regulations permitting a central travel approving
officer the maximum flexibility to address properly the
circumstances of individual travelers.
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3. Drastically reduce the number of approvals for
exceptions to travel regulations now required by higher
authority.
4. Eliminate the need by Central Travel Branch for
constant post approvals of travel expenses by the component
approving officer for questionable claims, which seriously
delays the accounting process.
5. Greatly increase the efficiency and overall
effectiveness of travel accounting procedures.
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