9. Providing Administrative and Executive Support to the Department and Its Clients

Some programs serve the entire Department of Agriculture, including all mission areas. Among these are Departmental Administration, the Office of Inspector General, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Accomplishment Highlights

Departmental Administration Program Initiatives
USDA hosted two procurement conferences targeting American Indian and Alaska Native corporations, resulting in an increase in contract awards to American Indian firms.

USDA is working with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to simplify and expedite the process for awarding contracts to 8(a) firms. The Memorandum of Understanding proposed for execution between USDA and SBA will streamline the procurement process by eliminating the need for SBA approval of contracts executed under the 8(a) program, and by establishing policies that will make the use of the 8(a) program more efficient and responsive to USDA customers.

USDA is partnering with Melwood Enterprises on a facilities management contract in excess of $1 million for the Beltsville Office Complex. Melwood is a Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act (JWOD) firm representing the severely handicapped/ blind industries. USDA is expanding the offerings of JWOD activities and industries beyond the current emphasis on supplies and products.

USDA loaned excess personal property with an original acquisition value of more than $1.1 million to the 1890 institutions in support of agricultural research, extension services programs, and related programs.

USDA initiated a Gleaning Program that encourages contractors to participate in USDA’s gleaning initiative, where excess food is donated to those in need. Letters were sent to USDA contractors explaining the gleaning program and how to sign up and participate in the program.

Reinventing Government and Saving Money
USDA awarded a $20.2 million contract to a small, disadvantaged business for network service support. This contract--one of the first under the new performance-based approach being championed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)--should provide more efficient services at reduced costs.

USDA took the lead in awarding a mail presort contract for all Government agencies located in the Washington, DC/Baltimore metropolitan area. This contract has the potential to permit savings of more than $2 million during FY 1998.

USDA now has print-on-demand capabilities for the customers of the Office of Operations. The FY 1997 savings was $250,000, for a limited number of publications. The savings will increase as more publications are added. Additionally, publications were delivered 10 to 15 days earlier and the new technology saves office and storage space.

USDA implemented the Work Number for Everyone©, a state-of-the-art employment verification system that improves the timeliness and accuracy of employment verification services for employees. The new system is projected to result in an annual cost avoidance savings for USDA in excess of $750,000.

USDA made extensive enhancements to Employee Express, a self-service human resources management system available to employees. Employees can now make changes to their health benefits and Thrift Savings Plan during “open season” using a touch-tone phone to access Employee Express. Costing less than $2.20 per employee per year to maintain, Employee Express has proven to be a cost-effective alternative delivery method for human resources management offices.

The Department has initiated the priority project of collocating USDA agencies with offices in the same community. Collocation will provide one-stop shopping to more effectively serve customers; and it will increase efficiency in agency operations by facilitating collaboration and cooperation, eliminating duplicate administrative efforts by maximizing the sharing of resources such as space, equipment, and personnel. Leases were awarded in Davis, California, and Kansas City, Missouri.

The USDA Office of Operations automated the electronic submission of excess property reports, reducing the processing time by 2 weeks. By accelerating the disposal process, they reduced the amount of time that property (office equipment, computer hardware, etc.) is stored in the warehouse, thus saving warehouse costs.

1997 Summer Student Employment
The 1997 Summer Student Employment Program was extremely successful. During the summer of 1997, a total of 3,170 students worked for USDA under a variety of summer and year-round student employment programs. Of these students, 2,798 (88.4 percent) worked in field locations.

Improving the Workplace
Construction of USDA’s 350,000-square-foot Beltsville Office Facility is complete. Designed as a 4-building campus on a 45-acre wooded site at the National Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, the facility will provide space for up to 1,500 employees. USDA will consolidate into the Beltsville facility some of the agencies that currently lease space in Maryland, and it will also relocate some employees who currently work at the D.C. Headquarters Complex.

USDA plans to implement numerous initiatives to reduce risks to employees and clients and to maintain a secure workplace environment. These efforts include installing a state-of-the-art security control center, upgrading the security closed-circuit television network, improving intrusion detection and access control systems, and enhancing the protection of exterior building perimeters and parking lots.

USDA established a Nursing Mothers Room in the South Building of the Headquarters Complex. This room provides employees who are nursing mothers the privacy to express their breast milk at work. The availability of this room lets some new mothers return to work earlier.

USDA completed design work for phase 1--modernizing Wing 3--of the South Building Modernization project in 1997.

Recoveries and Savings
In FY 1997, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified $58 million in recoveries and collections and $39.6 million in fines and restitutions. OIG also identified $899.7 million in questioned costs that cannot be recovered. Another $267.4 million was identified for which management made commitments to put funds to better use. OIG efforts also resulted in 664 criminal indictments and 703 convictions.

Child and Adult Care Food Program Sponsors Found Fraudulent, Deficient
In ongoing reviews of sponsors administering the Child and Adult Care Food Program, OIG continued to find widespread problems--including seriously deficient administration, program fraud, unsafe or unsanitary conditions, and licensing violations. Of the original 12 sponsors reviewed, OIG is conducting criminal investigations on 4. Twenty-four additional investigations are ongoing in 12 States. Due to the significant problems found, the Inspector General is launching a national initiative to expand OIG efforts to identify abusive sponsors.

One OIG investigation resulted in guilty pleas from four executives of a nonprofit child-care sponsoring organization in southern California, who were charged with defrauding the program of approximately $2.3 million. The Government has seized four residential and commercial properties fraudulently acquired by the subjects, valued in excess of $2 million.

Hepatitis A Outbreak Traced to Illegal Strawberries
A San Diego-based food broker and processing company, its president, and a former sales representative pled guilty to charges related to the illegal substitution of Mexican strawberries for U.S. domestically grown strawberries in the USDA School Lunch Program. The company also agreed to pay the Government $1.3 million in civil damages and a $250,000 criminal fine. The OIG investigation began after a March 1997 outbreak of the hepatitis A virus in Michigan which eventually sickened approximately 190 school children. The outbreak was believed to have been spread through the consumption of frozen strawberries served as part of the USDA School Lunch Program which were traced back to the San Diego-based company.

$35 Million Settlement for Export Program Violations
As the result of an OIG investigation, the U.S. Government concluded a global settlement with a prominent international grain company in New York and its foreign affiliate. The grain company paid $25 million to the Government in settlement of any potential civil claims, its affiliate paid a $10 million fine after pleading guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy, and three associated entities agreed to permanent debarment from Federal programs. This settlement represented the culmination of a series of investigations conducted since 1989 into fraud related to USDA's General Sales Manager 102 and 103 Export Credit Guarantee Programs.

Improved Civil Rights Complaint System and Treatment of Small and Minority Farmers
OIG issued several reports containing 34 recommendations to improve the Department's system for processing civil rights complaints and to improve relations with small and minority farmers. As the result of OIG’s review, the Department has developed a more reliable data base of complaints, hired additional staff, and informed all complainants of the status of their cases. Through the review of 11 States and 33 counties, OIG made recommendations to improve the Department's relations with the minority community through better targeting outreach efforts, upgrading the status of minority advisors to the county committees, and increasing workforce diversity at the local level. The Department is working to implement the recommendations, and OIG is monitoring its efforts.

USDA Strategic Plan Reflects Department’s Key Goals
The USDA Strategic Plan will guide the Department’s progress toward meeting its most important program goals. The first such plan ever developed for the Department was completed during 1997, incorporating the strategic plans for all USDA agencies into a comprehensive document that provides details about the Secretary’s key program goals and management initiatives.

USDA To Improve Debt Collection
Implementing the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 will result in the improved collection of millions of dollars of debt owed the Federal Government. The Act bars delinquent debtors from obtaining new loans or loan guarantees, mandates the use of electronic funds transfer (EFT) for all Federal payments, and allows the Department to use new means to collect delinquent debt.

USDA Center Successful in Bid To Process FAA’s Data
Secretary Glickman announced May 13, 1997, that USDA’s National Information Technology Center (NITC) in Kansas City, Missouri, was awarded a contract worth up to $250 million to provide information technology services for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Under the contract (known as the Integrated Computing Environment, Mainframe and Network), NITC will establish a system that combines the center’s expertise in information management technology with hardware, software, and technical support services to support the FAA’s administrative information systems. USDA successfully bid against other Federal and private data processing centers to win the contract. By franchising its expertise to the FAA, NITC expects to realize lower costs for its customers.

Improved Planning for Information Technology
USDA is developing a Capital Planning and Investment Control Program to assure that USDA managers have appropriate information when deciding to invest in a major technology initiative; it includes a disciplined mechanism for evaluating performance. This system includes the development, in conjunction with the Department of Energy and the National Performance Review group and other Government Departments, of an Internet-based decision support system that will provide senior level managers with the ability to continually analyze and monitor information technology investments. A critical aspect of this program is that key decisions will now be made by senior policy officials. The Department has a new Executive Information Technology Investment Review Board, which is composed of Sub-Cabinet members and is headed by the Deputy Secretary.

USDA Agencies Help Chop Public’s Paperwork Burden
USDA Subcabinet officials and Agency Heads were asked to support the President’s commitment to “eliminate all unnecessary paperwork burden on the public sector.” Mission areas and agencies were challenged to reduce the paperwork burden imposed on the public by 25 percent by the end of FY 1998. USDA agencies complied with this request and identified a cumulative burden reduction of 30.4 percent.

General Counsel Slashes Processing Time for Rural Utilities Loans
Once a rural utilities loan is approved, USDA’s Office of the General Counsel can deliver the necessary loan documents for rural telecommunications and electric loans in 7-10 days--instead of the 90-180 days it used to take. By computerizing the process, OGC can process the same loan volume that was handled under the old system more quickly and accurately, while reducing support staff by 40 percent. The new OGC software program takes 1,000 regulations and reduces them to 40 questions for loan applicants.

Welfare-to-Work Initiative
On March 8, 1997, President Clinton announced the Welfare-to-Work initiative for the Federal Government to provide employment opportunities to welfare recipients. He called on executive branch department heads to lead this effort in their agencies. Secretary Glickman responded by announcing that USDA was committed to hiring welfare recipients, including food stamp participants, into its workforce--and to retaining them. USDA hired 126 welfare recipients in 1997 and will hire approximately 250 in the next 3 years.