PHASE IV LONG-RANGE PLAN ACTION ITEMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B01152R000901240029-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2008
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: June 14, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

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CONFIDE CONFIDENTIAL DD/A Registry
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
Phase IV Long-Range Plan Action Items
FROM:
EXTENSION
NO. 25
OIS 83-102/2
Director o . n ormation Services
1206 Ames Building
DATE
14 JUN 1983
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
RECEIVED FORWARDED INITIALS
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
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UNCLASSIFIED when separated.
FOR
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VU HULN i iAL DD/A Registry
70/ 07/5
OIS 83-102/2
14 JUN 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
FROM:
Director of In ormation Services
SUBJECT: Phase IV Long-Range Plan Action Items
REFERENCE: Your memorandum dated 4 February 1983;
same subject (DDA 83-0140/10)
1. This paper responds to your questions raised after the Executive
Committee meeting and discussion on Phase IV long-range planning action
for the DDA. We have addressed the general issues, which you asked about
in the referenced memorandum, in the main body of this report. Under
separate tabs we are providing individual papers on the subjects raised
in the EXCOM meeting which required more indepth study and review. These
tabs cover the following:
a. Tab A - Agency Vital Records Program
b. Tab B - Electronic Records Archiving and Storage
c. Tab C - The Records Information System (TRIS)
d. Tab D - The Freedom of Information Act and Related Activities
The Tab D paper on the Freedom of Information Act has received much
attention recently because of the proposed relief legislation that has
been introduced in the Senate, and we thought it would be of interest to
you. Subjects related in a general manner to our responsibilities are
contained in the following paragraphs.
a. In the area of records management we have made many
improvements in providing advice and guidance to Agency components on
the creation, maintenance, use, and disposition of records. Examples
of some of these accomplishments are as follows:
UNCLASSIFIED when separated
from attachments
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(1) Files Management, and Records
Disposition Handbook, have been published as the first official
Agency handbooks providing guidance and instruction on these
subjects. These handbooks will enable Records Management
Officers and other employees throughout the Agency to find
information more easily and to destroy unneeded information more
quickly than in the past. They also will reduce paperwork by
eliminating the need for separate instructions and correspondence
to be prepared.
(2) National Security Classification Guide, has
also been published, consolidating the guidance and instruction
previously contained in four separate Directorate classification
guides. This handbook is organized in a new subject-matter
arrangement that is much clearer and easier to use than the
guides it replaces.
(3) As part of the Headquarters Records Review, 20 "common
items" have been developed for Agency records control schedules,
providing disposition instructions for some 75 series of records
held in common by most Agency offices. These new items will help
ensure consistency in the disposition of a large portion of the
Agency's files and will reduce the need for Records Management
Officers and other employees to learn new instructions each time
they move to a different office.
(4) Development of TRIS has been improved by focusing
requirements on more realistic goals and by assuming
responsibility for development work from the Office of Data
Processing. TRIS subsystems are being integrated to increase
efficiency and reduce paperwork by automating document accounting
activities from the time records are created until they are
destroyed or transferred to the National Archives.
(5) In addition, we have taken advantage of the regulatory
update cycle to work with originating offices on clarifying
sections of their publications that involve records management or
information security activities. No additional authorities or
regulations are required in order to perform these
responsibilities, but we do plan to update Records
Management, to incorporate information resource management
requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.
(6) Improvements in Methods and Procedures. In addition to
the items cited above, we, in a continuing effort to reduce
unnecessary paperwork, have accomplished a 15 percent reduction
in official Agency forms through the efforts of component Records
Management Officers this year. Continued attention toward
improving efficiency and economy in other areas include enhancing
our capabilities in auditing component records management
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practices, studying further the feasibility of establishing
consolidated registries, developing our ADP Records Management
Program, and expanding the automation of OIS information
management activities.
b. In the area of administrative reporting, only two periodic
reports in the records management field are required from Agency
components. Both of these requirements originate outside the Agency.
(1) Agency Records Inventory. The National Archives and
Records Service (NARS) requires an annual inventory of Agency
records holdings, which is prepared by component Records
Management Officers and consolidated by our Records Management
Division (RMD). RMD has attempted several times to have this
reporting requirement reduced or eliminated. These efforts have
been unsuccessful, however, because NARS needs the information
for reporting to Congress.
(2) ISOO Classification Action Report. The Information
Security Oversight Office (IS00) requires an annual report of
classification actions and other information security data. This
data also is needed for reporting to Congress, but RMD has
negotiated an arrangement with ISOO under which Agency components
count classification actions during a one-week sampling period
rather than continuously throughout the year. ISOO also has
worked with the Agency and other affected agencies to limit
future reports solely to statistical information rather than
continuing to require narrative information as well.
3. MANAGEMENT OF REGULATORY ISSUANCES.
a. In the area of initiating, processing, and producing
regulatory issuances, progress has been made too. The challenges are
still there but we are constantly striving for more efficiency and
productivity using the resources we have.
(1) Survey of Regulations. Currently, there are 261
quarters regulations in the Agency's regulatory system
field regulations. A survey conducted recently to pare down
the number further, if possible, revealed that these headquarters
and field regulations were considered necessary to provide the
proper guidance on policies and procedures and, therefore, none
could be eliminated.
(2) Value and Need - Regulations. Perhaps more than at any
time before, the Agency is subject to a plethora of Legislative,
Executive Branch, and Judicial oversight on all its activities so
that all policies and procedures that govern Agency employees'
activities and actions must be documented carefully and
accurately in the Agency's regulatory system. Extracts of our
Agency regulations frequently are introduced into the courts to
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counter a legal point raised by an employee or former employee as
to policy and procedural guidance they have received from Agency
managers. That the regulatory system is serving the Agency well
and meeting its mission in this regard is supported by the
Agency's record of-success in these court cases. In addition,
various DCIs have cited regulatory issuances during Congressional
inquiries to prove the Agency's adherence to the laws and
directives governing Agency operations.
(3) Value and Need - Notices. Headquarters and field
notices provide timely information and guidance to Agency
employees. The number of notices in effect at any time is
usually between 60 and 70. They are considered temporary in
nature. If they are to be continuing policy, the information is
incorporated into the more permanent form of regulations and
handbooks. Notices currently require an expiration date of six
months, but in unusual circumstances may be renewed with DDA
approval.
(4) Reduction in Processing Time. The Office has been
successful in reducing the amount of paper handled and retained
in files through a number of measures such as limiting the number
of drafts that are in coordination through personal contacts,
obtaining concurrence, and circulating a revised draft for final
review. Some lengthy and complex regulations and handbooks
generate considerable comment and divergent views requiring three
and four drafts, but these are the exceptions.
(5) Reduction in Paper Holdings. The work files on
issuances that have been completely processed and published are
purged after six months. The contents of the file deemed
necessary for future reference and research are microfiched. The
Office monitors Agency distribution schedules to ascertain that
the number of copies of issuances received by components remains
valid. Further, the "all employees" distribution is most often
restricted to one copy for every six employees even though the
initiator may routinely want each employee to receive a copy.
The content of the message is considered when invoking the more
stringent distribution.
(6) Problems. These items occur frequently but are
minimized to some extent by the good relations enjoyed between
the components involved and the Regulations Control Division.
(a) Regulatory issuances are essential to the conduct
of Agency business but the manpower available for this
activity throughout the Agency is minimal. Personnel
involved in the initiation and coordination of regulations
usually have other responsibilities which compete with the
need to review and concur in proposed regulations. The
Office of General Counsel (OGC), for example, has legal
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oversight responsibility for most Agency activities. The OGC
attorneys are involved with high visibility court cases as
well as over 400 proposed issuances a year for legal
approval. Their cooperation and response has been highly
commendable. The same is true of similar workload and
responses from offices such as the Inspector General,
Comptroller, Personnel, and others including the primary DA
support offices of Security, Finance, Logistics,
Communications, and Training. Coordination is vital to the
publication of regulations. The challenge is to accommodate
the resources available and the competing priorities with an
appropriate publication schedule.
(b) Problems occasionally occur with what seems to be
cases of pride-of-authorship where diplomacy with all its
ramifications must be used to its fullest to adjudicate
agreements and meet deadlines. Our editing is gratefully
accepted by most components, but initiators such as OGC
and/or office of Personnel may develop phraseology which is
deliberate but bureaucratic and only minimal changes are made
in these instances. In other instances, where disagreement
between components involves content, much time-consuming work
in negotiation and coordination must be accomplished before
the final regulation or notice can be produced.
(c) Location away from the components involved in the
majority of the coordination work, e.g., OGC, Personnel,
Security, Finance, Logistics, Communications, and the
Inspector General, presents a problem in accomplishing the
work in an efficient and timely manner. An interim solution
to this problem, until these offices are co-located, is to
electronically link our Wang word processing equipment with
facilities in Headquarters which will permit rewriting,
editing, and the exchange of such information in a more rapid
manner. We understand that such a capability has been
developed, but funding and equipment availability are
delaying the installation.
(d) The use of the Employee Bulletin for announcing
programs to be held in the Auditorium needs review. There
are some Agency components that resort to too much saturation
or overkill with this method when there are many other forms
of advertising which can be utilized effectively.
4. MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION REVIEW.
a. In the area of document search, classification review, and
public release of information, there are persistent problems relating
to the administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),
Privacy Act (PA), Executive Order (EO) 12356, and mandatory review
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programs. The ever present need to protect intelligence sources and
methods against an inadvertent release of classified information,
while being responsive to public needs against a constant backlog of
requests, creates a continuingly stressful atmosphere for our
reviewers and case officers. We review these programs frequently in
search of ways to reduce the backlog and related workload in order to
relieve this pressure.
b. There are also administrative requirements which must be
met. Some are self-imposed because of the necessity to keep Agency
management informed while others are imposed by laws and Executive
Orders. Reports involved are as follows:
(1) A Weekly Activity Report, sent to all levels of senior
Agency management, highlights FOIA requests received and
pertinent responses returned during the week. It also includes
data on cases which have been closed and the current backlog.
Agency managers provide comments on cases when they deem it
appropriate to alert the Information and Privacy Division (IPD)
to a possible flap or to provide other significant information
for use in processing a request.
(2) The Backlog Report (every two months) is a status report
of the total FOI/PA workload, with particular focus on the oldest
cases. It is sent to specific managers in OIS, DO, and OGC for
information and corresponding action as appropriate.
(3) Annual Reports are required by law or by the office with
the responsibility to compile the related statistics.
(a) The Annual Report to Congress is required by law and
covers Agency FOIA activities during the past year.
(b) The Annual Report to the Office of Management and
Budget is required by the Privacy Act and covers Agency
activities in this area during the past year.
(c) The Annual Report to the Information Security
Oversight Office is provided at their request and reports on
the amount of material which was declassified during the past
year.
c. Other administrative matters include:
(1) Quality Control. Our case officers initiate the
correspondence, along with other actions that must be taken, and
before the information is mailed it passes four levels of review
and proofing. The staff is trained in handling its
responsibilities through four seminars and one annual symposium
each year. In addition, a flap control panel, chaired by the
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Chief, IPD with other members from OGC, OEXA, DDA, and the
Directorate affected, reviews cases which are controversial and
could result in unfavorable publicity for the Agency.
(2) New Techniques Improve Response Time. It is extremely
important for us to be responsive to requests from the public.
We rarely are able to provide the information requested within
ten days as required by law, but our policy is to respond in some
manner, even though it may be only an interim reply, within the
specified time. Techniques include the following:
(a) During the past year we have attempted to determine
the scope of each FOIA request and thus provide more
efficient handling prior to tasking components to search for
the information requested. This requires addressing broad
subjects covered by the request in the attempt to define the
subject matter more specifically. This results in a
decreased search problem for the component and allows us to
be more prompt in our response to the public.
(b) We have become more cognizant of how the request is
stated in order to develop a better strategy to handle each
case. This is particularly important in those cases where we
neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of
records, i.e., the "Glomar" response. A "Glomar" phrase
should be used only at the immediate outset of a case.
(c) Discussions have been held with the DO/FOI
officials with the objective of possibly modifying their
queuing procedures to deal more effectively with requests
involving OSS records. OGC has tentatively agreed to rule on
such a procedural change which would result in more rapid
responses on OSS-related requests.
(d) The recent addition of three word processers for
the case officers will improve the flow of correspondence by
allowing case officers to compose some of their letters in
final form, including the on-line editing, before they are
printed for mailing. If this experiment is successful, we
plan to make word processors available to each case officer
and to the Deputy Chief. The first printing of a letter
would then take place when it is ready for Chief, IPD's
signature.
(3) The Intelligence Information Act of 1983, as proposed by
Senator Goldwater, would be a significant improvement to the
Agency's FOIA program. The legislation would exclude FOIA search
for operational records in the Office of Security, the
Directorate of Operations, and the Directorate of Science and
Technology. While a number of cases would be eliminated from our
col
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backlog, if the bill is passed as proposed, we still would
attempt to improve our responsiveness to the public. This may
require additional internal reorganization or a temporary
increase in resources devoted to our FOI/PA/EO programs. Such a
reorganization is discussed in more detail in Tab D as related to
the possibility of a centralized review capability.
5. Even though we have discussed these items at various times
before, this represents our latest thinking on these topics. We hope
that this information will be of value to you.
Attachments:
A.
Agency Vital Records Prog
ram
B.
Electronic Records Archiv
and Storage
ing
C.
The Records Information System
D.
Freedom of Information Act and
Related Activities
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