DRAFT IG REPORT ON LANGUAGE IN THE AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89G01126R000100120025-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: September 3, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/15: CIA-RDP89G01126R000100120025-9
MEMORANDUM FOR: Inspector General
FROM: Deputy Director for Intelligence
SUBJECT: Draft IG Report on Language in the Agency
1. I have reviewed the subject study and congratulate you
for its comprehensive examination of what has long been a thorny
problem for the Agency. I agree with tfie report's general
thrust, i.e., that each Directorate needs to do more to ic+entify
its language needs, survey its capabilities, and devise means to
remedy any shortfalls. More specifically, I endorse
recommendation #19 that calls upon the DI to prepare a statement
of its position with respect to these objectives for review by
the Language Development Committee (LDC).
2. Where I part company with the report is in those
recommendations that propose a substantially greater role for the
LDC at the expense, potentially, of the Directorates. During the
recent, extended debate about developing the new Language
Incentive Program (LIP), I understand that the issue of
centralization versus separately administered Directorate
programs came to the fore. Moreover, I am informed that the LDC
concluded that the reason the old LIP had failed was because it
attempted to enforce Agency-wide standards on Directorates whose
language needs are inherently quite different. I perceive an
inclination to reinvent this broken wheel in at least
recommendations 8, 10, 14, and 17 of this report and in those
portions of the text which imply that the Agency would benefit
from a language Czar empowered to prescribe solutions to the
Directorates.
3. In my opinion, the appropriate role for the LDC remains
unchanged: to establish broadly stated goals for the Agency's
language needs and to monitor the progress of the individual
Directorates in meeting these objectives. I would not quwibble
with the LDC's receiving a new mandate or chairman to heighten
its visibility, but I cannot support its being given the
authority to define the language requirements of positions
assigned to the DI or to become involved in our performance
appraisal and promotion process. I am also opposed to the notion
of a permanent staff for the LDC and to its having the capacity
to "issue regulations."
4. These reservations notwithstanding, I support the
majority of the report's recommendations and, more specifically, 25X1
agree with the following points in the Executive Summary:
25X1
~z~m
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o that the Agency, despite general recognition of the
importance of language, has in fact done very little to
implement a comprehensive approach to its development."
o "the LIP ....(has) eclipsed the development of a total
language system and put the burden for improving language
capabilities on the backs of the employees, hoping that
financial self-interest would substitute for demanding
and consistent management actions."
o "that it is vitally important that the effort to enhance
our language capabilities be linked with and incorporated
into Agency management end personnel policies and
practices."
On the latter point, I would add the phrase "at the Directorate
level." I make this suggestion because both hard-won experience
and our established system of decentralized personnel management
through the four Deputy Directors indicate that this is the only
practical approach. It is the DDs who are in the best position
to know the language requirements of their directorates and to
take those personnel management measures (in addition to monetary
incentives) most appropriate to meet these needs.
5. To address such needs at the Directorate level, I am
prepared to establish a Language Committee for the DI. Moreover,
I would ask this committee to begin its work by acting on
recommendations 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 17 through 20 of your
report in the ways best suited to our program. In short, I look
with favor upon the goals identified by your staff and only seek
to preserve Directorate control over the means by which they are
achieved.
o ert a es
Attachment:
List of IG Recommendations
Chairman
Language Development Committee
Helene Boatner, Director
Office of Management, Planning and Services
-2-
SECRET
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SUBJECT: Draft IG Report on Language in the Agency
DISTRIBUTION
Original - Addressee
1 - ADDI
1 - DDI Registry
1 - DI/MPS/RPMC/Chrono File
1 - DI/MPS/RPMC Subject File
DI/MPS/RPMC/ 3._ Sept 85
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