PART IV--RECOMMENDATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-00066R000800050017-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Content Type: MISC

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ri1JP1.1. LI J. 1NZ% J. A. V vi L-a'NIT'ATI:r--td.04.--1,-1.111.1./3.?_____
Part IV--RECOMMENDATIONS
Since feasibility of implementation of the proposed
internalization of the administration of the Agency's
retirement system appears likely, (provided that the necessary
additional resources are made available), this section includes
some recommendations for implementation--some of which are
suggestions originated by the writer and some of which are
suggestions of those who were interviewed and consulted on this
issue. The "general" recommendations are introduced first,
followed by some specific recommendations for the Office of
Finance and the Office of Personnel, the two offices that are
expected to experience the greatest impact.
General Recommendations:
1. Start at once. Or, at least once it looks very
likely that the Agency will get the authority to fully
administer its own retirement systems. Coordination
will be required among all components which are
involved in, or affected by, the retirement process.
An initial meeting will be necessary to introduce the
proposal.
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2. Following the initial meeting, set up a task force to
organize the effort. Due to the complexity of
? designing .and implementing the proposed new procedures,
it is recommended that the task force members be
available on a full-time basis. The task force should
be made up of representatives from all the offices
which will be affected by the reorganization. It
? should be responsible- for determining which offices
will absorb the new responsibilities, and among the
individual offices, how they will be organized or
reorganized. It should prepare progress reports
(showing options and plans and the anticipated short
and long run costs/impacts associated with each), and
9 report on a regular basis to the concerned Office
directors and to the Deputy Director for
Administration. Its goal is to design a single Agency
system; detailed plans or blueprints denoting the
delineation of responsibility and where coordination is
necessary, should be the result. In order to help them
undertake the design and development of the proposed
new plan, the individual task force members will want
to consult with those currently involved in the
retirement process on the working level, (both in the
Agency and at OPM), specifically to gather opinions and
assessments of additional resources which will be
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necessary, the effect of proposed alternative plans,
and other details. As an underlying concern, the task
force should consider/project the impact on the
following resources, from the implementation of the
in-house system:
?Personnel
?Space
?Systems
?Money
The capacity of the currently available resources
should be considered. Additional resources should be
sought to ensure that the plans can be realistically
carried out.
3. Visit OPM and study in detail the functions that it
performs on the Agency's behalf, noting the extent of
its involvement and the procedures and systems in
place; then determine how and where these functions can
be absorbed within the Agency.
4. Although the goal is to eliminate other government
agency involvement, especially where the release of
names of Agency employees is required, the Agency may
wish to maintain cleared liaison contacts with OPM in
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order to obtain required information on an individual's
prior Federal service and contributions to the
retirement fund. This is normally only done upon
retirement, however this procedure may not meet the
objectives of the plan, since Agency employee names and
records would be maintained and handled by OPM
employees.
A more secure alternative would be to place Agency
personnel physically at OPM to verify dates of prior
Federal service and amounts contributed
Service retirement fund. Although this
be a feasible alternative, it would not
sufficient certification to support any
to the Civil
would probably
likely be a
transfers of
money to the Agency from OPM on behalf of the unnamed
Agency employee. As a cost of protecting the
identities of Agency employees, a remedy for this
problem is to set up a fund in the Agency's budget to
match the contributions due to the retirement fund
which are not transferred to the Agency by OPM.
5. Based on the recommendations of the task force,
a. Start working on the creation of new systems and
enhancements of current systems. Consider
contracting out for help. Be sure that future
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.... _
users and experienced personnel are involved in the
determination of the identified needs and other
decisions. Consult the Office of Information
Technology (OIT) when necessary, especially as
regards to the the immediate impact of this effort
on current Agency systems (especially that of
Compensation Division's Retirement Pay Branch), and
the design and timing of bringing on new or
upgraded systems.
b. After the reorganization plans have been made,
begin to consider staffing requirements, and
arrange for new personnel slots. Training will
need to be arranged for certain individuals. For
example, some Finance personnel may need to take an
OPM retirement benefit adjudicator's course.
Courses which may also be sought are those which
provide instruction on the administration and
recordkeeping requirements of a thrift plan similar
to the one proposed.
6. The task force should consider contracting out for
assistance as it deems necessary.
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AUMINITAATIVL.--INTLANAL Ubr; WILY
Specific Recommendations for the Office of Finance:
Two alternative methods of incorporating the additional
responsibilities into the Office of Finance's current system
were identified as a result of this study: establish a
Retirement Division in the Office of Finance, or reorganize
Compensation Division. Both of these options are discussed
below:
1. Establishment of a Retirement Division in OF--
Because of the anticipated growth in responsibility,
it will probably be necessary to establish a
a Retirement Division in the long run. It might be
easier, however, to establish it initially before
the volume of responsibility is so great that
future reorganization would mean a major overhaul.
The Division may be comparatively smaller than
other divisions in OF at first, but it will need to
expand over time to meet the additional demands and
workload. The new Retirement Division would have
three basic functions:
a. Accounting/Recordkeeping--Responsible for
keeping records of each individual's
contributions and equity accumulated in
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the defined benefit and thrift plans;
doing all the necessary recordkeeping for
the various funds; preparing cash flow
projections used to guide Monetary
Division in its investment of certain
funds; and preparing all the necessary
periodic statements for each fund and for
each participant. The various funds will
probably need to be kept separate for
actuarial review purposes.
b. Adjudicating--Responsible for the
verifying individual benefit computations
and certifying to initiate payments.
c. Payroll--Responsible for the correct and
timely payment of all qualified
annuitants, including the accuracy of the
payroll deductions and home/bank addresses
of annuitants and related information.
For control purposes, each function--the recordkeeping,
verification, and payment functions--should be kept separate.
In addition, in the interest of security, there may be a need
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for different personnel to handle the pay and administration of
covert and overt annuitants, especially where significantly
'diverse procedures are involved.
The new Retirement Division would have three major areas of
responsibility. Shown below, they are broken down into
branches for illustration purposes:
(1) CIARDS Branch--To handle all of the above
functions for both the current and new CIARDS and
"CIARDS-like" annuitants.
(2) CSRS Branch--To handle all of the above functions
for only new Civil Service and "Civil Service-like"
annuitants.
(3) Thrift Plan Branch--To handle all the
accounting-related functions for the new plan,
including keeping track of individual records and
also the amount required to be periodically sent
to the Thrift Investment Board for investment.
Finance's VIP Accountant could be relocated with
this section, since their functions are related.
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2. Reor anization of Com ensation Division of OF--This is
probably a less ambitious option than the establishment of an
entirely new division. There are many combinations possible;
some suggested alternatives for reorganizing Compensation
Division are as follows:
a. Retirement Pay Branch as it is today could be
dissolved and its functionsmade a part of a system
that is set up to accomodate both CSRS and CIARDS
participants. A separate branch could be set up to
accomodate the CSRS and CIARDS participants who are
also covered by Social Security.
b. Or, Retirement Pay Branch could remain intact and
be expanded to accomodate the CIARDS participants
who are under Social Security. A parallel system
could then be designed to handle the pay and
administration of the CSRS annuitants (including
those under Social Security).
C. Another alternative is to modify the current
procedures and systems of the Retirement Pay Branch
to accomodate its current workload, plus all
prospective retirees under all systems, provided
that the modified system in place could accomodate
the additional numbers.
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d. A final alternative is to design and implement an
entirely new "Retirement Pay Branch", to handle all
Agency annuitants.
Further integration of the three branches suggested for the
proposed Retirement Division, especially combining RPB (the
CIARDS payroll function) with the Civil Service payroll
function, may however cause excessive confusion or overloading
of the system's capabilities. Retirement Pay Branch currently
carries out a separate and distinct operation. It essentially
has two functions: the payment of CIARDS annuitants and
recordkeeping of the related investments. It has a "VM
application" with some automated features, however, it also has
alot of manual requirements. In addition, there are some
unique and time-consuming responsibilities which require
personal attention and a high degree of security
consciousness.
In any case, separate personnel will be needed to
administer the new thrift plan. The staff should probably be
located near, but not integrated with, the other pay and
administration personnel who are also working with the
retirement systems.
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The determination of what the new form of the annuitant
payroll and thrift plan systems will be, should be made with
feasibility, efficiency, cost consciousness and any existing
time constraints in mind. Anticipated future needs of the
systems should also be considered. -
Specific Recommendations for the Office of Personnel:
As mentioned, there are some additional responsibilities
that the Office of Personnel will need to assume; however, the
organization in place should be adequate to accomodate them.
Therefore, the Office of Personnel should continue to handle
its responsibilities to the Agency retirement systems as it
does currently, with a few exceptions. One exception is the
establishment of a new thrift plan administration staff that
would perform essentially the same functions that the "VIP
representative" performs for the Voluntary Investment Plan.
Due to its anticipated popularity and volume of activity, a
fully automated system should be designed and implemented.
Increased personnel will be needed especially in the Annuitant
Section to handle the increased workload. They will also need
a data base system for maintaining the voluminous records of
separated employees. Also, additional automation in both the
Annuitant and Operations Sections will be essential in
achieving efficiency and accuracy.
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