MANAGING 'THE FUDGE FACTORY'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630071-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 71
• Publication Date: March 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630071-3
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NEW YORK TIMES
25 March, 1985
Managing 'the Fudge Factory
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 24 ? As
Ronald I. Spiers tells it, he was hap-
pily at work as Ambassador to Paki-
stan when he complained offhandedly
to Secretary of ' State George P.
Shultz, who was passing through Isla-
mabad, about the way the State De-
partment was managed worldwide.
The next thing he knew, Mr. Shultz
was asking him to return to Washing-
ton to become Under Secretary of
State for Management. Mr. Shultz's
first choice as head of management, a
corporate expert in the field, had
given up in disgust after less than a
year of trying to put order into what
has affectionately been called "the
Fudge Factory."
The problems of the State Depart-
ment are so long-standing ? inade-
quate resources, cliquish personnel
policies and a pervasive feeling that
what most officers do has little im-
pact on foreign policy ? that being
head of management is viewed by
many in the department as an invita-
tion to frustration. Mr. Spiers said he
took the job because after complain-
ing to Mr. Shultz "I could hardly tell
him I preferred to stay where I was."
Mr. Spiers, a veteran of the Foreign
Service, has in recent months begun
speaking out candidly about his un-
happiness with the state of affairs at
Foggy Bottom, and he is quick to say
that not much has changed yet. He re-
cent gave a speech to the American
Foreign Service Association, the
trade union for the State Department,
and excerpts from that speech appear
in the current issues of the Foreign
Service Journal and the State Depart-
ment's own house organ;
In his view, not only does the State
Department not receive enough
money to do its job well, but it has
failed to manage well the resources it
has, namely a dedicated corps of dip-
lomats.
In a way Mr. Spiers may have dis-
covered the wheel. It has long been
known that a disproportionate num-
ber of competent diplomats had little
to do. Former Secretary of State
Dean Rusk complained in the early
1960's that the department had "too
many chiefs and not enOugh Indians."
Mr. Spiers makes the same point
when he says: "We have too many
senior officers who cannot be placed
in jobs appropriate to their rank" and
"currently, 90 senior officers are
overcomplement" (doing "make-
work" jobs). In part, this is because
of politics. Since 1981, he says, 23 am-
bassadorial or other senior assign-
ments have moved from career to
'At the heart of
many problems is
a loss of discipline.'
?Ronald I. Spiers
political appointees. Even the most
respected category is not immune. Of
40 career ministers, the absolute
cream of the foreign service, seven
are without meaningful jobs, he says.
Many officers, particularly those
without challenging assignments,
complain that despite all sorts of ob-
jective criteria that are supposed to
be used to rank officers and to select
the best for promotion, in the end it all
depends on whom one knows in a posi-
tion of power. An officer may have
performed superbly in some far-off
embassy, but ususally has less
chance of getting a top positionsthan
does a talented aide to a senior offi-
cial in Washington.
For instance, it is regarded in the
State Department as a passport to a
prized overseas assignment to spend
two or three years as a senior aide to
a high official. In fairness to those
officers, they do put in 18-hour days
and long weekends, and the toll on
their personal lives is often heavy.
Too often, Mr. Spiers says, assign-
ments depend "more on whom you
know than whether you are the best
for the job or the job is best for you."
The system today penalizes officers
"who are less visible to the decision-
makers in Washington" and fails to
insure "equitable sharing of hardship
assignments," he says.
"At the heart of many of these
problems is a loss of service disci-
pline that, in my view, arises from a
sense that the system is not operating
equitably" he said. "I see little
chance of restoring esprit de corps
and a sense of service until we find
ways to restore trust in the system
and overcome a feeling that nice guys
finish last."
Another major complaint of Mr.
Spiers is the lack of funds given to the
State Department for its basic job.
The budget is about $2 billion annual-
ly, which, as Mr. Spiers points out, is
less than one percent of the Penta-
gon's budget.
Moreover, he saysz despite the
mystique attached to the Central In-
telligence Agency and other clandes-
tine o rations 70 rcent of the ma-
tena in t e ? resi ent s supersecre
morning report covering crucial
overnight international develop-
ments comes from Foreign Service
reporting. And yet, in the last decade,
there has been an 18 percent cut in the
numPer or people -devotea to edo-
nomic and political reporting and
analysts ? the heart of the depart-
ment's responsibilities ? as we had
to meet increases in consular work-
loads and provide administrative sun-
port for other agencies." d ?
What we have one, year after
year, is thin the soup," Mr. Spiers
said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630071-3