International Cooperative Administrative Support Services
MINUTES
ICASS INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP MEETING
ICASS Service Center
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
10:00 a.m.
1.
Introduction of IWG Members and Attendees
2.
Adoption of Minutes
The Minutes of the January 14, 2015, IWG Meeting were approved and adopted.
3.
NEA-SCA Regional Management Overview: Ned Alford, NEA-SCA Regional
Executive Director.
(Please see Mr. Alford’s PowerPoint presentation which is attached below.)
Mr. Alford expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to address the ICASS IWG about
a very dynamic region, as evidenced in recent news. He noted that NEA-SCA was two
distinct bureaus with three types of posts: Normal NEA posts, Normal SCA posts, and
posts that are in Areas of Unrest (AU) or conflict. Mr. Alford briefly discussed the foreign
policy priorities and the impact on operating environments for the posts in this region.
Some operational hurdles include security, crime, and filling positions. He noted that the
difficulty in filling positions stems from a variety of conditions within the NEA-SCA
region, including that 62% of the posts are unaccompanied, many are classified as hardship
or danger pay posts, housing is a challenge because of poor infrastructure, medical and
health issues are concerns due to the lack of U.S.-level health care providers, and there are
limited school options for dependent children.
Looking at inter-agency growth, Mr. Alford explained that the region has undergone rapid
and continued growth, along with agencies’ increased use of TDYs to pursue post or
regional program initiatives, all of which impacts the support platform. He noted that
ICASS USDH staffing has not kept pace with customer growth and he displayed a chart
showing the number of ICASS customers by region in 2007 and 2014, noting the
significant increase in customer levels in NEA-SCA as compared to the other regions.
Mr. Alford focused on major management issues in NEA and SCA regions (e.g., lack of
FTE for new positions, increasing numbers of COCOM personnel, recruitment issues for
posts that do not have Priority Staffing Post benefits packages, etc.), highlighting their
efforts on risk assessment and mitigation. To illustrate his point on staffing, he provided a
February 11, 2015 IWG minutes
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spreadsheet identifying the service provider-to-customer ratio for each NEA post,
highlighting those with the greatest staffing challenges, and the ratio for the NEA and SCA
regions as a whole.
Turning to the posts that are in Areas of Unrest (AU) or Conflict criteria, Mr. Alford
presented the management issues and challenges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. For
Iraq, he noted that the FY2015 budget assumed a continued move to regularized operations.
However, since June 2014, the increase in the military presence has led to a greater demand
for operations, life support, and medical services. He identified some of the key issues
which will impact Afghanistan’s ICASS budget in the coming years, including: rolling the
Afghanistan Life Support Services into ICASS in FY2017; exploring staffing with Third
Country Nationals as LE Staff leave or receive Special Immigrant Visas; reviewing
housing options to address the need to increase the number of residences; and moving more
personnel to Kabul as we close field operations. In Pakistan, the budget will focus on
supporting staffing and basic operations, security, IT, and improvements and upgrades to
temporary facilities. Mr. Alford reported that Islamabad will move into a New Embassy
Compound in 2015 and post anticipates significant cost increases for utilities and contracts
for operations and maintenance support.
Finishing with a look at the cost savings initiatives undertaken in the NEA-SCA region,
Mr. Alford identified some of the key activities, including: voucher processing through the
Post Support Unit; implementing MeterNet to reduce energy consumption; and many
greening initiatives such as LED lighting, rainwater collection, solar water heaters, and
recycling of scrap metal. (Double click on the image below to see the presentation.)
1
THE BUREAUS OF NEAR EASTERN
AFFAIRS & SOUTH CENTRALASIA
ICASS
Presented by NEA-SCA/EX Director, Edward Alford
February 11, 2015
4.
Updates/Reports:
ICASS Service Center:
ISC Director Richard Boohaker reported on the recent webinars for post Budget
Committees and for CDC. He reminded IWG reps that the annual ICASS Customer
Satisfaction Survey is in full swing and appreciates their support in getting the word out to
overseas personnel. He also advised on the ISC’s participation in the Overseas Personnel
System (OPS) “Fit-Gap” sessions last week. (The full text of the ISC Director’s report is
included at the end of these minutes.)
Budget Update:
o Peter Hogan (ISC) reported that the informational FY15 Initial invoices are expected to
be distributed to customer agencies by early March, followed by the Recap II invoices a
couple weeks later. Finally he advised that on March 11th at 9:00am (prior to the
February 11, 2015 IWG minutes
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March IWG meeting) there will be the first of the briefings on Below-the-Line Items,
with American Salaries and probably Post Assignment Travel (PAT) budget costs
presented that day. All IWG are welcome to attend this briefing.
o Jeff Kramer (USAID-ASP) reported that ASP invoices were sent to agencies in late
January, along with a spreadsheet on the service provider redistribution. He asked
IWG members to check with their budget office and notify him if their agency has not
yet received their package.
Service Provider:
Sherrie Marafino introduced IWG members to the OCCI website and walked through some
of the key aspects of the site and contents (see picture of homepage below). As an
example, she showed Yerevan’s OCCI plan (“View Plans”), explaining that posts were
tasked to submit up to ten cost containment initiatives targeting the GSO or Building
Operations cost centers. The OCCI program and related tasking was introduced at the fall
Regional Management Officer Conferences, Budget Workshops and Worldwide GSO
Workshop. Management Officers were provided with a packet of post data (“Access your
post data Packet”) meticulously pulled from a variety of State data repositories (e.g.
TREES, FleetStat). This wealth of information showed posts where they stand on various
metrics by using green, red or yellow arrows to highlight a description of whether specific
criteria or thresholds were met based on the various sources of Post data. Post progress on
each goal will be followed and as completed, posts will be able to add new goals to their
plan.
Ms. Marafino also talked about IRM’s plan to add up to 50 regional IT positions, mostly
funded out of State Program, which will be made available under the ePAP program
(Expanded Professional Associates Program).
Below are snapshots of the OCCI homepage and a breakdown of projects by type that were
viewed during the meeting. (Images can be resized for better viewing.)
February 11, 2015 IWG minutes
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5.
Committee Updates:
Policy Committee: IWG Chair Janet Buechel reminded everyone that today’s Policy
Committee would focus on two items: a review of the draft DETO policy and discussion of
the action items from the fall IEB site visits.
6.
Other Issues
IWG Chair Janet Buechel directed everyone’s attention to the list of cables sent to them
electronically. She highlighted two cables on new legislation regarding LE Staff Death
Benefits. State/BP is gathering additional information on the impact of this legislation and
will provide a brief report out at the March IWG meeting.
The meeting ended at 12:15pm.
February 11, 2015 IWG minutes
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ICASS Service Center
U.S. Department of State
SA-1, Columbia Plaza, Room H1504
International Cooperative Administrative Support Services
(202) 663-3260 FAX (202) 663-3275
February 11, 2015
TO:
ICASS Working Group
FROM:
ISC Director – Richard Boohaker
SUBJECT:
February 2015 Director’s Report
Budget Update: With the FY 2015 Initial Budget process completed, the score carding process
is now underway and ISC staff is incorporating that exercise into our ongoing work. Meanwhile,
the informational invoices are being worked now and should be available at the end of this
month or the first week of March.
On January 28th Budget Committee met on the subject of reviewing the Domestic Below-the-line
Requirements at the semiannual budget hearings. The Committee formulated a set of requests on
timing, content, format and documentation that Trish Garate has outlined and shared with the
committee members. The ISC is currently in coordination with BP regarding the details of these
recommendations. We thank the meeting attendees for their very good input.
Outreach and Training: In late January the ISC conducted webinars in its “Just in Time” series
for post ICASS Council and Budget Committee members. The webinar focused on the details of
the post meetings held at this time of year to review the post MOU and update policies related to
workload count modifications in advance of the workload count process for FY 2016. The “Just
in Time” webinar series is focused on educating overseas staff on their role in the ICASS budget
and performance cycle at post; webinars are held at key points in that cycle to provide the
information when it is most needed. The ISC also conducted one of its periodic webinars for
staff of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The webinar, conducted jointly by ISC and CDC
staff, is part of CDC’s mandatory post orientation program for CDC staff slated to be assigned
overseas.
ICASS Customer Satisfaction Survey: The 2015 ICASS Customer Satisfaction Survey opened
20 January 2015; and as of Friday, February 6th we’ve received 37,084 responses for a 46.6%
response rate worldwide with 209 of 233 posts worldwide exceeding the 25% participation
target. The ISC is in daily communication with the post management and Councils providing
daily participation rates and sharing “get out the vote” practices. The survey is scheduled to run
through February 20th.
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ISC Participation in Overseas Personnel System (OPS) Sessions: ICASS Service Center staff
attended the OPS “Fit-Gap” sessions last week, along with Department and other agency
personnel, to identify requirements for the new personnel system to be used at posts. The
sessions were hosted by HR and included staff from PeopleSoft, and will determine if the latter’s
application can serve the needs of the Department as it seeks a replacement for the legacy post
personnel system.
Working Capital Fund Activity: Through 9 February, 285 of the FY 2015 first Recap
Summary invoice payments have been authorized for a total of $422M. These represent 97% of
the 295 invoices issued on 7 November 2014 for 99.9% of the $423M total invoiced with 94
days elapsed. There are eight (8) Recap#1 invoices outstanding for $497,000. Delinquent
invoice letters have been issued to the customer agency POCs. There will be one more round of
Recap invoices issued in March which should bring total billings for FY 2015 to 70% of last
year’s totals.
February 11, 2015 IWG minutes
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