SPIERS SPEAKS CANDIDLY, PUBLICLY, ABOUT STATE'S MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

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CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1
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December 22, 2016
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October 25, 2010
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7
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March 1, 1985
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STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 News Highlights Spiers speaks candidly, publicly, about State's management problems In a blunt, hazd-hitting speech at the Foreign Service Club, Under Secre- tary Ronald I. Spiers on January 29 publicly gave voice to some inside crit- icisms that have been made of the De- partment in recent years, in language that at `some points upstaged the De- partment's critics. The management chief cited four priorities on his agenda-inadequate fi- nancial resources, attributable in part to State's being "timid" about demanding what it needs; diverse "structural prob- lems" of the personnel system, includ- ing the Senior Foreign Service; and the need for more extensive internal com- munication and a Department reorgani- zation. Mr. Spiers spoke at a luncheon of the American Foreign Service Associa- tion, asthe third person to appear in the organization's "Viewpoint" series (STATE, January). "We have ap- proaches under way to deal with all of these problems," he said. "I'm reason- ably optimistic about the prospects of finding fixes to many if we're persist- ent enough." Resources The under secretary asserted: "I view the Department as a principal na- tional security arm of the U.S. Govern- ment, comparable with our military and intelligence services. Indeed, I think it's the most important of the three .. . Yet the Department has been treated as the orphan among the three when it has come to the annual distribution of re- sources. Worse, it has tended to treat itself as somehow the least deserving of the three. Too often it's been reticent and timid-almost apologetic-about speaking up for the resources it needs to do its job." For example, he said, a study he commissioned had shown that 70% of the intelligence items regulazly being reported to high Government officials had "originated in Foreign Service re- porting." He added: "Nevertheless, over the last decade we had an l8% reduction in the number of people devoted to eco- nomic and political reporting and analysis-the heart of the Department's responsibilities-as we had to cannibal- ize to meet consular workload increases and provide administrative support for other agencies." Secretary Shultz has been effective in "beginning to turn the situation azound," Mr. Spiers said, pointing out that he won a large supplemental ap- propriation for security this fiscal year and last yeaz overturned an Office of Management and Budget-imposed per- sonnel ceiling to obtain additional posi- tions for reporting and analysis. But the Department "has never re- ceived," Mr. Spiers said, "the Presi- dent's formal certification as a national security agency. In my view, the ques- tion of this certification must remain our highest priority objective. Without it, we're treated on a par with every domestic agency when Government- wide cuts are imposed. For instance, as part of the effort to cut the 1986 deficit, we've suffered a cut of over $200 mil- lion from our carefully considered re- quest. We raised our national security status and were granted some relief from an even larger cut originally imposed by (Management and Budget), but I suspect we'll find we've fared poorly as compared to Defense and In- telligence when the final results aze in. Nevertheless, we'll have $31 million less to spend in 1986 than in 1985, and Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 we'll have to absorb a $14-million pay raise and consular workload increases .. Congress has yet to, act and may cut further." British have about 125 senior positions out of a total of 2,500 FSOs. They don't promote into the senior service until there's a job to be filled. This eaz w y e promoted 39 into the Senior Senior Foreign Service Foreign Service against a requirement The under secretary asserted: "In of minus two.. . my view there's never been a system- atic look at what we really need to staff "Of course, we have a difficulty that our Foreign Service. We've now em- most other services don't have: an un- barked on such a project. The first as- certainty about the number of political pert I want to talk about is the Senior appointees with whom we have to com- Foreign Service. Most outside observ- pete for senior positions. Since January ers think (it's) too lazge. Frankly, I be- 1981, 23 jobs at the ambassador or as- lieve we don't have the basis to rebut sistant secretary level or up have these critics completely ... We've moved from career to noncareer occu- never related the number of people in pants. the Senior Foreign Service to the jobs This has a major impact on the that need to be graded at that level; so assignment process. Right now, seven we are very vulnerable. Grading of jobs career ministers are overcomplement or at the senior levels on special assignments. particularly in Washington, too frequently has been "We've begun a review of the haphazard and undertaken for the classification of positions now graded wrong reasons. Job content and com- at the OC level and up. The results are partitive responsibility aren't being used expected this fall and should give us a as guidelines in many cases of basis for determining just what size upgrading office chief jobs or to deputy Senior Foreign Service we need and country director slots. Far too many bu- can justify. In the meantime we're reaus upgrade positions to senior level holding promotion numbers and LCEs solely for the purpose of enticing more (limited career extensions) to a lower junior bidders who will judge their level to avoid exacerbating the prob- chances for promotion are thereby en- lems and the pain we might otherwise hanced. We must embark on a course have to face in the future, in order not wherein sound `position management' to increase the senior surplus. dictates Departmental structure. "If the anticipation is correct that "The fact that we have 16% of our when we reach the new "high 3" this senior positions filled by mid-level December there'll be a lazge number of officers-`stretch assignments'-also retirements, we'll be able to loosen up provides fuel to our critics. If these on promotions and LCEs somewhat. jobs can be filled by mid-level officers, But as long as we have cazeer ministers why are they graded at the senior level? With excellent records and experience Our goal is to reduce stretch assign- Who've been without proper assign- ments to about 10%. It's beginning to menu for up to three yeazs I'll continue be recognized in the Service that stretch to have doubts about the rightness of assignments are a mixed blessing, since our course. It's demoralizing and they also reduce promotion opportuni- Wasteful." ties. We don't promote to fill jobs cur- More 'structural' problems tl h l ren y e d by stretches. "We have too many senior officers who can't be placed in jobs appropriate to their rank (right now we have 40 senior officers overcomplement). I be- lieve there's something to be said for the way most other foreign services avoid this problem. For example, the Mr. Spiers continued: "There are numerous other "structural" problems we're trying to deal with: -"A recruiting system which seems to short-change us on highly competitive minority entrants; -~"A hiring system which takes too long to bring people on board and thus costs us some of the most promis- ing candidates, who can't afford to wait out the time it takes to get to their names on the register; -"An evaluation system that's burdensome for supervisors, often leads to hyperinflated or meaningless ap- praisals, or risks giving only aone- dimensional picture of the ratee; -"A training system which is meager and unstructured compared to, say, the military's; -"An examination system which gets us capable economic officers more by accident than by design (this also holds true for administrative officers); -"Executive development proce- dures which are haphazard, unsyste- matic and have generally favored politi- cal officers, confusing analytic brilliance with managerial effectiveness; -"An assignments system which too often operates as a disincentive to broadening assignments; which has de- pended more on who you know than whether you're the best for the job or the job is best for you; which tends to penalize officers in training or func- tional bureau assignments, or who are less visible to the decision-makers in Washington; which fails to ensure equi- table sharing of hardship assignments; -"A resource allocation system which has permitted political and eco- nomic jobs at the junior level to erode, with the result that too many officers in these cones have approached tenure with inadequate or no experience in those areas in which they will presuma- bly spend most of their careers. 'Loss of discipline' "At the heart of many of these problems is a loss of Service disci line that, in m view arises r C a t e s stem is not o ratin see -tt e c ance o restoring es- pnt de corps and a sense of service un- til we find ways to restore trust in the system and overcome a feeling that nice guys finish last." 'Societal changes' While all of these problems "are at Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 ? Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 least theoretically amenable to im- provement," Mr. Spiers said, there is one that has stymied him and his colleagues-the societal changes that have led to two-income families and to tandem couples in the Foreign Service, and the "rapidly growing dilemma (that) revolves azound spousal recogni- tion and compensation for services rendered on behalf of our missions abroad. We're not alone in having to face up to our responsibilities on this account. We've explored various ap- proaches with other foreign services, all of whom-including in the Commu- nist countries-regard this issue as the major one they face. For example, the Japanese pay a 40% salary supplement when spouses accompany an officer overseas and perform representation functions on behalf of national interests and objectives. But?I don't know what you do to keep a capable Foreign Serv- ice when more and more spouses have professional careers which can't very well be pursued abroad. We've a long way to go on this issue. Perhaps there is po~answer..." Internal communication Mr. Spiers said: "The Foreign Service is a family of mature people and my experience is that candor and openness should be the norm in our dealings with each other. Therefore, we've tried to draw as many of our col- leagues as possible into the process of identifying our problems, understand- ing our dilemmas and into discussions about how we cope with them. One of the reasons we have developed the "short tour" assignment is to bring some of our best and most experienced minds` io beaz on these problems. "Last April I wrote to all chiefs of mission and asked each to identify the three or four things which seem most to grate on or make life difficult for our personnel. We received an avalanche of thoughtful replies ... We've been looking into all of these issues. Some of them will require legislation to deal with but most of them can be handled by administrative change. My view is Spiers expects to stay on; he recalls taking the job Under Secretary Ronald I. Spiers indicated in his speech at the Foreign Service Club that he anticipated re- maining at his post to see through some of the changes he feels are needed. "One of the main problems in manage- ment has been too much turnover and lack of follow-through," he said. "I hope myself to resist the siren song of other assignments for a while." He recalled, too, his shifring from an ambassadorship to the management position. "When Secretary Shultz asked me to take this job," he related, "after a chance discussion in Islamabad, in the course of which I was outspokenly crit- ical of much of the Department's man- agement practices, he said he'd con- cluded that someone with a variety of foreign policy experience in Washing- ton and overseas should be asked to give it a try. "One of the points I'd complained about was the lapse of discipline and growth of brokering in the assignment process. So I could hazdly tell him I preferred to stay where I was and meet college tuition payments without going deeply into debt." ^ that all personnel should be able to fly business class, particulazly on longer trips. I think we should lift the pay cap on differentials. We should be devoting more resources to ensuring better stor- age, transportation and pouch services. The new Financial Management Sys- tem and (the Consolidated American Payroll Processing) Programs should do away with many of the complaints about foulups on pay and allowances during periods of transfer. I would like to achieve a consolidated allowance system which amalgamates hardship, danger and special incentive differentials. "Another change we've introduced is a monthly management issues cable which aims to keep all of our col- leagues abreast of what we've thinking and doing. We try to make cleaz that we welcome input from everyone on problems that affect all of us. Manage- ment certainly has no monopoly on wisdom or insight, and I for one al- ways found distasteful a system which produced changes behind closed doors and imposed them without explanation." Reorganization The under secretary continued: "I've long felt that the Department of State is badly organized to formulate and carry out our stated policies over the long haul. There aze, I believe, too many quasi-independent organizational units. Congress has given us new bu- reau after new bureau, often without regard to organizational rationality. Many think" we have too many ambassadors-at-lazge and too many as- sistant secretaries and assistant secretary-equivalents .. . "A change I advocate is a rebalancing of responsibilities among the seventh-floor principals. For a long time I've favored the evolutionary de- velopment of an under secretary for in- ternational security affairs. The respon- sibilities of this position would focus on the Department's interaction with the defense, intelligence and arms con- trol communities, while the under sec- retary for political affairs would focus on bilateral and more traditional diplo- matic issues. "The argument is validly made that this would diminish the responsi- bilities of (that under secretary), would transfer to the deputy secretary the problem of reconciliation where these responsibilities overlap or come into conflict. Nevertheless, it's clear from my own experience in arms control, Politico-Military Affairs and intelli- gence that the under secretary for polit- ical affairs can't give the sustained at- tention to the whole range of these issues that their significance deserves. "I've also advocated that the under secretary for economic affairs' respon- sibilities should be broadened, perhaps by giving him general oversight respon- ~,~,~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1 sibility of other than (the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs), in- cluding perhaps (the Bureaus of Refu- gee Programs, International Narcotics Matters and Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs), and telecommunications policy." Conclusion Mr. Spiers closed by saying: "...A professional, trained, disciplined career Foreign Service will continue, for the forseeable future, to be necessary for the advancement and protection of the interests of the United States. The ex- istence of an independent, largely self- governing Foreign Service is the object of a substantial amount of suspicion, criticism and resentment today. There are many who would like to put the, Foreign Service under (the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's) protective wing, to apply the Civil Service proce- dures of rank-in-job, retirement, and so on, to it. "To them, the idea of a largely self-assigning, self-promoting self- evaluating system, with something of a. conviction about its own identity that. borders on elitism, is anathema. "However, like a military service that is prepared to go where it's sent, to carry out loyally the direction of its democratically-chosen political leader- ship, to provide the best advice it can from a background of strongly grounded professionalism and integrity, with the resources it needs to do its Pastel payoff The Treasury Department has de- cided to brighten up its income tax re- fund checks by issuing them in color-in pastel hues ranging from light blue to pale peach. And they'll be on lightweight paper, making them cheaper to produce and more difficult to counterfeit. State Department people who filed for refunds with the Internal Revenue Service office in Philadelphia will get the colored checks, no matter where they reside, Treasury said. Its fa- miliar green punchcard check is being phased out. ^ job, a career Foreign Service will con- tinue to be a necessity for our country as far into the future as this observer can see." ^ State's '86 budget seeks 388 new positions; slots are in security, reporting The Department is asking Con- gress for a, net increase of 388 positions-primarily in the areas of se- curity and reporting and analysis-and $2.56 billion for fiscal year 1986, which begins October 1. To fight the threat of terrorism, it is seeking 141 positions. These include 77 regional security officers, 31 overseas security engi- neers, and additional. Marine security guards for 12 embassies of the United States. The Department is also seeking 176 positions to strengthen political and economic reporting. "This program, begun four years ago, recognized that staffing in critical countries was not sufficient to meet substantive responsi- bilities," the Department says in a statement prepared for congressional hearings. These positions are principally ir. the following bureaus: African Affair;, 32; East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 32; Economic and Business Affairs, 6; Eu- ropean and Canadian Affairs, 29; Intel- ligence and Research, 22; Inter- American Affairs, 24; Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, 27; Oceans and International Environmental and Scien- tific Affairs, I; and Politico-Military Affairs, 3. The Department is also asking for 27 new positions for its foreign affairs information systems, improved systems security and computerized security- enhancement programs. In addition, State is requesting 20 more positions in communications-3 for trainers and 17 for other communi- cations support. The budget seeks $134.4 million for acquisition, development or con- struction of new and present office and housing facilities, including security- related projects. The foreign buildings budget includes: -Development of architectural and engineering plans for chanceries in Ivory Coast, $1.6 million; Benin, $2.7 million; Sudan, $2.4 million; Jamaica, $1.4 million; and Port Moresby, $0.5 million. -Site acquisition and develop- ment for chanceries in Chile, $6. I mil- lion; Beijing, $2 million; Tunisia, $3.1 million; and Israel, $9.3 million. -Development of plans for con- sulate office buildings in Guangzhou and Shanghai, $2.4 million. -Site acquisition and develop- ment for embassy compound projects in Ankara and Istanbul, $3.3 million; in Algiers, $1.6 million; and plans for consulates in Adana and Izmir, Turkey, $l.6 million. -Purchase of staff housing in Jakarta, $3 million; Bangkok, $0.4 mil- lion; Sudan, for Defense Department staff, $I million; and Egypt, $0.3 million. -Rehabilitation in the chancery in Bonn, $5.5 million. Funds for present projects include: construction of chancery office build- ings in Venezuela, $26 million; Guyana, $10.4 million; Bolivia, $21.3 million; Botswana, $5.6 million; and the proposed chancery and ambassa- dor's residence in Nicosia, $I I.l mil- lion. The budget earmarks $12 million for the second-phase rehabilitation of the Bonn/Plittersdorf housing complex. ^ Department sets up new procurement office A new Office of the Procurement Executive has been established in the Department, with John J. Conway as acting director, reporting directly to the assistant secretary for administration. Similar offices have been established in other cabinet agencies. The office will formulate Department-wide procurement policies and directives; provide advice on pro- curement laws and opinions issued by the courts and the General Accounting Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/10/25 :CIA-RDP88G00186R000901170007-1