PUBLICATIONS PROCUREMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000600070010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2005
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: October 30, 1969
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/11/06: CIA-RDP80B01495R000600070010-7
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_M'M()aAN1)Ur FOR: Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence
Publications Procurement
1. This memorandum concerns the effects of implementing the
Executive Director -Corr-ptroller's 29 October memorandum on
publications procurement. In sum, implementation of these instruc-
tions will have a disastrous effeet upon the Agency's acquisition of
commercial, governmental, and scholarly publications.
2. T statement shows that we have already obligated
upwards of I _J Some of this may be recoverable but only at the
expense of serious disruption to the acquisitions process.
J. The acquisitions process begins its annual cycle each July.
The pattern of the previous year's expenditures is established and a
budget is projected for the following year. In July 1969 we projected
a outlay with expectation that almost anothe
would be available for over-runs. We estimated the needs of each major
spender of acquisition funds in FY 1969, arbitrarily reduced these outlays,
and infor:- ect each customer of his FY 1970 funds. We then produced
Alb'6 machine listings of the Tub; criptions that were current for both
foreign and domestic period, gublication acquisition, forwarded these to
the CIA offices ordering the periodicals, and requested their review and
revalidation. y about 1 September, these revalidation of subscriptions
were returning to CR5. Throughout September they were consolidated.
The reordering of subscriptions began about 1 October. Today it is
virtually complete with the result that ove as already been
obligated.
4. We have not yet paid for many of these subscriptions that have
been reordered and we ma,
be able to cancel existing orders and reorder
in smaller quantities, saving some funds. We must, however, do this
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in the next two weeks or so because the suppliers of the publications need
alu ost two months to fit our orders into their distribution systems. If
the process is not complete by early November, the result will be that
many of our subscriptions will run out at the end of December, and we
will have no ability to acquire the desired publications. Thus, to cut
back on orders in being, we must redo a four-month cycle in two weeks
or less.
1. CI'S considers the 29 October memorandum on publications
procurement from the Executive Director-Comptroller to be ill-advised
for other reasons as well. Total cost of publications procurement is
nominal if one considers that most authorities on U.S. intelligence have
concluded that more than 75% of all useful intelligence information is
obtained via open sources, and if one considers the high cost of any
1:CRIT intelligence collection relative to buying a magazine on a
newsstand. Certainly the outlined program will generate heavy control
costs particularly in the already pared down CRS acquisitions operation.
The memorandum also seems to totally neglect the fact that the cost of
publications has increased by so-, ething more than 5% annually since
1965 because of inflation. It also seems to neglect that the 9% increase
during P Y 1969 procured a smaller number of items than were obtaii ted
in 1968. Inflation added about 7.6% to the average price of all U. S.
periodicals in 1 9 as compared with the average 1968 price.
3t K. VANCE
'ir entral Reference Service
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Approved For Release 2006/11/06: CIA-RDP80B01495R000600070010-7