THE FIRST 60 DAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M01364R000800190003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 28, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 13, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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STAT
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT:
(Optional)
FRCOIC
Daniel A. Childs, J]
Director of Finance
1212 Key Bldg.
EXTENSION
NO.
OF-0297-88
DATE
13 September 1988
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
INITIALS
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
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FORM 610 USE PREVIOUS
1-79 EDITIONS
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/01/28: CIA-RDP90M01364R000800190003-7
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OF-0297-88
13 September 1988
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
Associate Deputy Director for Administration
FROM: Daniel A. Childs, Jr.
Director of Finance
SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
. As you know, I have now been the Director of Finance for about two
months. I thought it would be useful to give you my impressions of the health
and well-being of the Finance career service; highlight some of the
problems/issues I've found; and outline the steps we are taking to resolve
these problems.
A. The Health and Well-being of the Service
1. Overall, I've found that the Finance career service is staffed
by a dedicated, hard-working group of folks. The quality and
professionalism of the service is sound, but it is not without its
problems. They are experiencing a "crisis in confidence" because of a
failure to prepare adequately for the generational change that has
occurred; they lack a strategic vision of the future and its
implications for the service; and morale is not particularly good.
2. In my view, although previous management accomplished some
good things, it was too narrowly focused on a limited set of issues.
Fundamentally the service is suffering from a lack of leadership and
direction. As an illustration, before assuming the job, I had private
one-on-one discussions with each SIS officer and senior GS-15 in the
service. I was particularly struck by the broad consensus among these
officers not only about their perceptions of problems that exist in
the service but also about what they felt needed to be done to fix
them. Either nobody asked before, or if they did, nobody was
listening:
3. The senior officer corps in the service, with some minor
exceptions, is very capable and versatile. They are every bit as
capable as their contemporaries elsewhere in the Agency. Their only
shortcoming is that they seem not to have been challenged in recent
years to use their imagination and creativity. As a result, they -
and the service as a whole - tend to define their roles fairly
narrowly and are too cautious about even prudent risk-taking. They
clearly have the ability to be imaginative and creative; they simply
need encouragement in that direction. I'm already impressed with how
they are responding to the challenge.
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SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
4. Some of our most challenging problems are among the GS-13/14
cadre of officers. I gather this results from moving officers along
too rapidly to fill vacancies created by growth in the service --
although, in my view, it has not grown commensurate with the mission
and workload -- and retirements. A number of the officers at this
level, while basically good, solid officers capable of successfully
fulfilling any number of less demanding finance jobs, simply have been
advanced beyond their ability to perform effectively at the GS- 13/14
level. We plan to counsel these folks, upgrade their skills where
possible, or eventually move them to jobs more commensurate with their
abilities.
5. The younger officers are outstanding. This is an area where
previous management gets high marks. As a group, they are extremely
bright and aggressive, and very ambitious. If we can keep them
challenged, they will be an important part of service's future.
There are, however, some potential difficulties that have surfaced
with one element of this group, the career trainees (CTs). Apparently
previous management devoted so much attention to the CT's, and made
them so many promises, it has created a chasm in the service -- a
"we/they" environment -- which is counter-productive for everybody.
It is my intent to take a more balanced approach to this issue and I
have made that known to the service. I have told them that CT's are
an important part of our future, and that we will continue to need an
influx of such people in the future; but, that they will not be given
preferential treatment and will be expected to compete with their
colleagues throughout the service for promotions and prized
assignments, such as those abroad. Indeed, we have implemented a new
policy of announcing overseas vacancies to ensure that folks are aware
of these openings and have the opportunity to express interest in
these assignments. I believe we can use this not only as a career
management tool but also as a means to eliminate the perception of
preferential treatment that clearly exists in identifying officers for
overseas jobs. In essence, I am trying to instill a sense of
"equal-opportunity" within the service, which I believe everyone will
find more appropriate over the long run.
6. On a related matter, I also intend to bring more balance to
our recruitment efforts. We will clearly have a continuing need for
four-year degree candidates; but as a practical matter -- given that a
large number of finance jobs tend to be fairly narrowly focused -- it
will be difficult to keep large numbers of college graduates
challenged throughout a career in the Finance service. Consequently,
I plan to target some junior college and bright high school graduates
who have the ability and desire to grow and succeed in our service.
2
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SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
7. Automation is another area where previous management can point
to some major accomplishments. My concerns here have to do with scope
and focus. I am concerned about the lack of an overall architecture
for our automation efforts. We need a better road map that tells us
where we need to go, how we are going to get there, and whether our
current efforts make any sense in the broader scheme of things. The
bulk of our efforts are devoted to the BARS/CLAS initiative which will
unquestionably have major implications for how we and Logistics do
business in the future. But there are a broader range of day-to-day
problems that would benefit greatly from automation support, that are
not getting adequate attention in the meantime because of lack of
resources. I am also concerned that we are putting too many of our
eggs in the BARS/CLAS basket too soon, and allowing our current
systems to dangerously atrophy. We are already experiencing serious
degradation in response-time and availability with the current systems.
I have, serious reservations that BARS/CLAS will meet either the
schedule or specifications currently planned, and believe that OTT
must allocate more resources to maintaining the integrity of our
current systems. We have become so engrossed in the BARS/CLAS
programs that I fear we have lost sight of the need to implement quick
fixes that would result in short-term gains.
8. The morale problem stems from a variety of things, some of
which I have already alluded to such as the CT issue. In my view, the
major factor effecting morale is what I refer to as a "crisis in
confidence." This results from the generational change in the service,
the lack of a sound training program, and instability in assignments.
As I indicated earlier, the service did not plan well for the
generational change that has taken place. Most of the knowledge and
experience in the service departed in a fairly short time frame
without adequate preparation of the junior officers. This, coupled
with the lack of a sound basic skills training program, has left the
younger cadre of officers with little to fall back on for advice and
assistance. The explosive grow in the Agency's mission and the demands
it has placed on the service, has only exacerbated the problem --
people have not been able to stay in jobs long enough to learn from or
be held accountable for their mistakes. As a result, the depth of
knowledge and expertise in the service is quite thin, which has
created a sense of uncertainty and cynicism.
B. The Agenda
1. I have created a number of small teams to examine some of the
major problem areas and have tasked several individuals to review
specific issues. The following summarizes the actions underway, all
of which should be completed by the end of the year.
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SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
Major Problem Areas
- Development of a long-range strategic plan that lays out where
we need to be as a service 3-5-10 years from now and how we are
going to get there, with specific goals, objectives and
milestones. (Note: This may have to be augmented with a specific
office ADP plan.)
- Reexamination of our organizational structure to streamline
it, force management responsibility further down in the
organization, and ensure our structure is consistent with and will
facilitate the direction we need to take to meet future challenges.
- Development of a revised career development system that
emphasizes sound succession planning, assignment policy, and
training. We also will examine methods to streamline the career
panel and performance appraisal system.
- Reexamination of our philosophy and approach to advances of
funds, with the goal of placing more responsibility on the
individual advancee and their supervisors for timely accounting
for funds.
- Examination of all administrative and fiscal plans to
determine whether they are current, being complied with and
accounts are up-to-date. We also will examine ways to streamline
and expedite procedures for developing and implementing these
plans.
- Examination of our various arrangements with Price Waterhouse
to ensure the effort is properly focused and that the results are
worth the cost.
Other Items
2. I have a broad range of other actions underway to deal with
problems/issues. The following is just a sampling of the types of
actions that have been tasked.
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SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
- All division and staff chiefs and senior directorate BU officers
are now required to attend my weekly staff meeting. The executive
officer will summarize major items of interest and distribute
throughout the service via AIM.
- All division and staff chiefs, and senior directorate BU officers
have been tasked to provide goals, objectives, and milestones for FY
1989, and to justify their operating budgets for FY 1989.
- Certain division and staff chiefs have been tasked to develop key
performance measures and report monthly against them, with appropriate
analytic comment.
- Monetary Division was tasked to reassess its various operations in
terms of the adequacy of current safeguards and identify any
vulnerabilities.
- Security BU and Accounts and Certification Division are examining
the feasibility of transferring to Personnel unique payrolling
operations still being performed by these officers.
- The Career Management Staff has been asked to develop procedures
for giving division and staff chiefs responsibility for promotions
through GS-8.
- Liaison and Accounts and Certification Division are examining
additional steps that can be taken to facilitate prompt payment to our
vendors.
- Accounts Division has been tasked to completely revise the annual
financial report to make it more useful as a management tool.
Morale
3. Improving morale is probably the most difficult issue we
face. A number of the actions outlined above seem to be having a
positive effect. In addition, the following are either already
underway or planned:
- We are improving communications among the service by expanded and
more frequent staff meetings, by a revised and more frequent
newsletter, and by greater use of AIM.
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SUBJECT: The First 60 Days
- Larry and I will begin weekly visits to the major elements of the
external service. We also will create a new element in our
organization structure to support and provide advice and guidance to
the external service on a full-time basis.
- We will continue monthly one-on-ones with the division and staff
chiefs and senior directorate BU officers.
- I will reinstitute the weekly coffees that I began as Comptroller
to informally reach out to a cross-section of finance careerists.
- I am planning short visits this fall to Europe, East Asia, and
South/Central America to meet our careerists abroad, explain our
agenda, and get an understanding of the problems they face.
- We are planning an end-of-fiscal year party and an office picnic
in the spring.
2. On balance, I believe the service is basically sound. Although there
are some problems, none in my view are intractable. I will need your strong
support in certain areas to be successful -- policy changes we are likely to
recommend; key personnel assignments; and, reorganizing the office and the
related requirement for two additional SIS positions.
3. I will be happy to discuss this with you more fully if you desire.
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