UPDATING OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S 1977 SURVEY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00142R000300070007-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2001
• Sequence Number: 7
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Office of Communications
FROM . John H. Waller
l
G
enera
Inspector
DDS r
General's 1977
t
I
h
or
nspec
e
SUBJECT : Updating of t
Survey of the Office of Communications f
REFERENCES : A. IG Memorandum 77-2075, dated 23 September
1977 to the Director of Central Intelligence
From the Inspector General.
B. IG Memorandum 77-~'O77, dated 23 September
1977, to the Acting Deputy Director for
Administration from the Inspector General.
C. OC Memorandum 78-317, dated 25 April 1978,
to the Inspector General from the Acting
Director of Communications.
1. My office has surveyed the Near East and South Asia
Division, Latin America Division and Africa Division in the
Directorate of Operations (DO). These surveys provided an
opportunity to expand the list of interviewed Office of
Communications (OC) employees beyond the approximately
contacted during the 1977 Inspector General Survey of DC.
2. As in 1977, our concern is not whether OC management
recognizes the various administrative and operational issues
confronting OC; OC management has a very clear understanding
both of the issues and what should be done to deal with them.
The continuing interviews of OC employees confirm that a
primary problem involving the professional and personal
concerns of OC employees remains. I am pleased to note that
these interviews indicate, however, that the overseas
communicators are more willing than in 1977 to credit OC
management with a more serious and effective effort to improve
personnel management. On the_Qth_er_h_and,_the interviews
indicate that OC m~nagement, at all levels, nee a ref1 ct
imeliness in
visibly, sensitivity, precision, frankness and timeliness''
dealing with OC personnel.
E2 IMPDET
CL BY 055636
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3. I recognize that many, if not all, of the matters outlived
below are concerns expressed by communicators over the years.
Nevertheless, I believe that the perceptions and comments of the
communicators as gathered recently by the Inspectors may be of
benefit to you.
A. Despite the availability of the 1977 IG Survey of
OC in OC Headquarters, in the Area Headquarters and in
some field stations, about one-half of the communicators
interviewed in Latin America and Africa DO stations
expressed little knowledge of precisely what personnel-
related actions OC management has taken following the
survey. We found many communicators who expressed doubt
that significant changes would result.
B. The great majority of the interviewed communicators
noted that there has been some increase in Quality Step
Increases (QSI) and other awards. Despite this improve-
ment, nearly one-half of the interviewed communicators
still desire more tangible signs that their individual
performances are well-regarded by OC management.
Almost without exception, the communicators feel that
promotions will be almost as difficult to obtain as
in the past. They do believe that OC management should
dispense more letters of commendation and appreciation,
more QSIs and more monetary awards for innovative, cost-
saving and operational improvement suggestions.
C. Almost all of the communicators at smaller field
stations in Latin America and Africa consider that there
is still a problem with "unnecessary" call-ins and exten-
sions of regular shifts to cope with after-hours traffic
generated by all OC customers. Less than ten percent of
communicators who expressed an opinion believe that they
should receive some (amount and type undefined) monetary
compensation for being on on-call status.
D. There is a general acceptance among the inter-
viewed communicators that the Expected Position Vacancy
List system has the potential to improve the OC assign-
ment and re-assignment process. The communicators are
reasonably content with the assignments they receive.
They almost unanimously view the process itself as very
impersonal and mechanistic and still frustrating to them
due to the frequent changes in assignments which create
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inconsistencies in the amount of advance notice given to
communicators on transfers and assignments. The recent
creation of the OC Assignment Review Panel to deal with
the problems of those communicators who have assignments
they feel they cannot take seems relatively unknown to
the overseas communicators.
E. Although field station communicators receive
visits from technical, engineering and communications
security personnel, what they seem to desire is more
frequent contact with the senior management of the
Area Headquarters. Visits from, and subsequent career
counselling by, Area lieadquarT:ers Chiefs and Deputy
Chiefs are assessed by nearly half of the interviewed
communicators as erratic and sporadic. The Inspectors
found, however, that most communicators have a pragmatic,
realistic, or somewhat pessimistic outlook regarding any
drastic improvement in their career opportunities.
Communicators in general expressed some apprehension
-about their ability to cope with future technological
advances in communications without upgrading training.
F. The Inspectors generally found fewer complaints
than in 1977 about OC's personnel policies. Despite the
institution by OC of the requirement that at least two
(or three) Fitness Reports and the last Competitive
Evaluation Listing (CEL) are used in CEL panel delib-
erations, most communicators still felt disadvantaged
by what they called the "whipsaw" assignments from one
area to another. They still believe that panels do not
take into consideration their cumulative performance
record in the CEL deliberations.
G. The communicators stationed in countries where
English is not the lingua franca expressed the view
that they would feel more secure and comfortable if
they and their spouses were allowed to acquire an elementary
fluency in the local language prior to the assignment.
Endemic to this apparent increase among communicators in
the desirability of language training are the changing
security and personal safety conditions in most areas of
the world.
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1. The acknowledged stiff competition among commu-
nicators for promotions has led a small number of
communicators to worry that OC'; performance evaluation
panels are focussing on how many "bad marks" a
communicator has rather than on how well he performs
his job.
J. Closely linked with the above perception is
the belief among communicators who have not been
promoted for several years that they get little mean-
ingful advice from "career counselors" at OC Head-
quarters on how to enhance their chances for promotion.
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M. Two specific items arose for which I have these
suggestions:
1). Communicators in Latin America questioned
the necessity for Saturday morning duty often enough
to merit the suggestion that the DDA and DDO consider
whether more extensive use of SELCAL and SATCAL
procedures might eliminate the need for Saturday
morning duty except in crisis situations.
2). Both Chiefs of Station and communicators
questioned the extent to ihich rating reports written
on Communications Officer, by Chiefs of Stations/Bases
really had meaning in OC'.; performance evaluations
of Communications Officer-. I suggest that the DDA
and DDO may want to issue a clarifying statement on
this matter.
4. A recent case which came to my office revealed that
OC does not maintain a written record of the meetings of the
OC assignment panels beyond the cable correspondence which
notifies communicators of their new assignments. I believe
that some record, with due consideration given to protecting the
privacy of the assignment panel officers, should be retained for
a specified period of time to document the rationale for
assignment to specific positions.
iVaW
.ioion .
Distribution:
Orig - D/OC
1 DDCI
VI-IY DDA
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