MINUTES OF THE 18 APRIL 1978 EXECUTIVE ADVISORY GROUP MEETING (U)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96B01172R000900010012-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 12
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Advisory Croup Members
SUBJECT : Minutes of the 18 April 1978 Executive Advisory Group
Meeting (U)
1. (AIUO) The Executive Advisory Group (EAG) met on 18 April 1978
to discuss the Report on Industrial Contracts and Industrial Security
which had been prepared by a CIA task force and distributed to EAG
members.
2. (S) The EAG focused its discussion on the central issue of the
report, the first of its 27 recommendations, which proposed that there
be a single delegation of contracting authority from the Director of
Central Intelligence to the Director of Logistics, with redelegation to.'
the contracting officers for national, as well as CIA, programs.
3. (S) Mr. Dirks urged that the current procedure, whereby author-
ity for national program contracting is delegated directly to the Chief,
Contracts Staff, Office of Development and Engineering, be continued.
He noted that the process has worked well in the past, that there are
mechanisms to protect against problems and that the Air Force has modeled
its contracting mechanism for national program activity after ours.
4. (AIUO) Mr. Carlucci said that he wants to ensure that the Agency's
contracting procedures will withstand scrutiny by its oversight bodies.
While no instances of contracting abuse have occurred, it is important that
Agency contracting procedures are perceived by everyone as proper. He
felt that national program managers should not have (in effect) the final
authority with respect to procurement, since their primary interest is
to launch projects effectively and expeditiously, not to assure that proper
contracting procedures are followed. Audits, inspections, and reviews,
which occur after the fact, provide insufficient guarantees. If the
proposal were adopted, he hoped that the new process could function with
a minimum amount of disruption to established ways of doing business.
5. (AIUO) Mr. Blake emphasized that the responsibility for con-
tracting must be clear, and that if given full responsibility through
adoption of the recommendation, the Director of Logistics must be given
commensurate authority. Mr. McMahon and Dr. Stevens stressed that in
making his decision, Mr. Carlucci should recognize that the current
smoothly functioning procedures for national program contracting were
adopted precisely for the purpose of streamlining operations and that
the proposed change in delegation, to reduce the hazards of impropriety,
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would necessarily introduce delays. Mr. McMahon said he felt, however,
that it was time for a change. Dr. Stevens felt that we should retain
the present arrangement.
6. (AIUO) Mr. Dirks suggested that Mr. Carlucci reserve judgment
until a briefing could be arranged to acquaint him with the broader
context of national program management. Mr. Carlucci agreed. He asked
that the briefing be scheduled soon and directed that a second EAG meeting
on this same topic be held in about four weeks. He said he would like
to learn why the Department of Defense, too, has no contract review board
for national programs. He asked Mr. McDonald, Director of Logistics, to
submit a report on how the Office of Logistics would handle its proposed
role, specifically. He asked Mr. Taylor, who had expressed concern that
deeper aspects of national program relationships had not been given
sufficient attention in the deliberations, to articulate these for his
attention during the briefing he will receive.
7. (AIUO) The EAG agreed to adopt the report's recommendations on
industrial security (recommendations 3-6, in addition to those in the
Industrial Security Interim Report which had already been approved by the
Director of Central Intelligence). These are not affected by the basic
issue which must be resolved. The rest of the recommendations, Mr. Carlucci
said, will be considered at the next EAG meeting on industrial contracting.
V
James H. Taylor
Secretary
Executive Advisory Group
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