8. Providing Administrative Support to the Department and Its Clients

Office of Inspector General

Mission

The Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) mission is to conduct and supervise audits and investigations to prevent or detect fraud and to improve the effectiveness of USDA programs by recommending changes that will increase efficiency and reduce wasteful and fraudulent activities.

Recoveries and Savings

In FY 1998, OIG identified $63.9 million in recoveries and collections and $48.6 million in fines and restitutions. OIG also identified $39.5 million in questioned costs that cannot be recovered. Another $127.9 million was identified for which management made commitments to put funds to better use. OIG efforts also resulted in 777 criminal indictments and 604 convictions.

Operation Talon Shows Continued Success in Apprehending Fugitives From Justice

Operation Talon is a Presidential initiative designed to locate and apprehend fugitive felons, many of them violent offenders, who are current or former food stamp recipients. Operation Talon has been expanded to include 34 metropolitan areas in 23 States, and 3,206 fugitive felons had been arrested as of September 30, 1998.

Presidential Initiative in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Continues With Operation “Kiddie Care”

Operation “Kiddie Care” continues to detect fraud committed by CACFP sponsors around the country; as of September 11, 1998, 53 sponsors in 23 States were being audited or investigated. As part of Operation “Kiddie Care,” 13 sponsors have been terminated from CACFP. These 13 had been receiving $24.2 million in program funds annually.

Office of Chief Financial Officer

Mission

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) will shape an environment in which USDA officials have and use high-quality financial and performance information to make and implement effective policy, management, stewardship and program decisions.

National Finance Center Achieves Year 2000 Compliance Goal

OCFO’s National Finance Center (NFC) in New Orleans met a self-imposed deadline to make all its systems Year 2000 compliant. The NFC provides payroll/personnel services to 435,000 employees from USDA and 100 other Federal agencies, accounting for one-fifth of the entire Federal Government. NFC’s systems include the Federal Government’s Thrift Savings Plan, which is the $67 billion 401(k) retirement plan with 2.3 million participants.

OCFO’s National Finance Center Marks Civil Rights’ Progress

OCFO’s NFC unveiled Inclusion University, a self-paced optional program for employees who want to expand their understanding of diversity issues in the workplace. An NFC original, this program is the first of its kind in the Federal Government. This effort and other initiatives contributed to a 36-percent decline in informal EEO complaints and a 41-percent decline in formal EEO complaints.

USDA Increases Debt Collection by 45 Percent in FY 1998

USDA collected $78.3 million in delinquent debt for the first 9 months of 1998 from the Tax Refund Offset Program (TROP) and Treasury Offset Program (TOP). This figure exceeds the $53.7 million collected during the same period in 1997 by about 45 percent.

Office of the Chief Information Officer

Mission

The mission of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is to strategically acquire and use information technology resources to improve the quality, timeliness, and cost effectiveness of USDA service delivery to its customers. The following accomplishments reflect the OCIO’s efforts to achieve that mission.

USDA Makes Progress in Addressing “Year 2000” Problem

USDA launched an aggressive in-house and outreach program to address Year 2000 computer and embedded chip problems and to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of its programs and services. These include food stamps to some 25 million Americans, loans and payments to millions of farmers, child nutrition programs, and programs to promote agricultural trade and to protect the environment. USDA identified 643 “mission-critical” systems: at the end of the fiscal year, 502 or 78 percent of those systems were Year 2000 compliant. Ninety-four percent of the 332 systems undergoing repair met the renovation milestone date. OCIO’s National Information Technology Center (NITC)—which provides information management services and technology to support USDA agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other agencies—successfully migrated its mainframe computer system to a Year 2000 compliant operating system. In addition, USDA leads the Food Supply Working Group of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion—raising awareness and working with industry partners to address potential Y2K- related problems in the farm-to-table food supply chain.

“One-Stop Service” for Customers Moves a Step Closer to Reality

USDA purchased the first increment of new technology required to fulfill our promise of providing “one-stop service” for farmers, ranchers, and customers of rural development programs. This historic milestone represents an important first step in moving away from “stove pipe” service delivery toward a shared information system for USDA’s farm, conservation, and rural development agencies. When the “Common Computing Environment” is complete, customer benefits and payments will be processed electronically, and much faster; customers will no longer have to provide the same information to different USDA agencies because they will share a common data base; customers will be able to access program information and apply from home; and the paperwork burden on USDA customers will be significantly reduced. USDA employees, freed from no-value-added work, will have more time to provide direct assistance to customers.

Office of the Chief Economist

Mission

The mission of the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) is to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on the economic prospects in agricultural markets and the economic implications of policies, programs, and economic events affecting U.S. agriculture and rural communities; to ensure the public has consistent, objective and reliable agricultural forecasts; and to promote effective and efficient rules governing Departmental programs. OCE was created by the Secretary under the authority of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, Public Law 103-354.

OCE consists of the Chief Economist and Immediate Staff, the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis, the Global Change Program Office, and the World Agricultural Outlook Board. Three major functions are carried out by OCE: (1) economic intelligence, policy, and program coordination, which includes farm labor, small farms, sustainable agriculture, global change, and energy activities; (2) agricultural estimates and projections; and (3) regulatory analysis.

Accomplishments

In the face of growing concern about agriculture-related hazards to human health and the environment, the Department is applying sophisticated new techniques to pinpoint risks and options for reducing them. In the past year, the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis provided technical support for USDA risk assessments for Salmonella in eggs, irradiation of beef, pests in wood pallets imported from China, foot-and-mouth disease in beef from Argentina and South Africa, and hog cholera in Mexico. Cost-benefit analysis also helps monitor the impact and effectiveness of new programs. USDA is undertaking case studies to determine the efficacy of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Reserve Program.

USDA is making sure that U.S. agricultural concerns about climate change and efforts to mitigate it are heard as the world community decides how to implement the 1997 Kyoto Accords. Risks associated with climate change and climate variability such as temperature and precipitation changes, as well as an increase in extreme weather events, could have a big impact on agriculture, forestry, and rural areas. The Department’s Global Change Program Office has been an active member of the U.S. delegation at meetings on the U.N.-sponsored Accords and has taken part in other domestic and international climate change activities.

In the past year, USDA used scientific analysis to challenge claims by China and Brazil that U.S. wheat would spread fungal diseases. USDA scientists and meteorologists presented evidence demonstrating that neither country has climatic conditions that support the spread of TCK smut or karnal bunt. This information greatly weakened the arguments for banning U.S. wheat imports. Brazil recently removed TCK smut from its list of quarantined diseases that block imports and has announced it will permit imports of hard red winter wheat grown in seven U.S. States.

USDA is working with the National Weather Service (NWS) to ensure that agriculture’s essential data needs can be supplied despite cutbacks in NWS specialized weather services. As the first step in developing a national agricultural weather observing network, OCE’s World Agricultural Outlook Board has stationed the first field meteorologist for the network at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Stoneville, Mississippi, re-opening this former NWS site.

In addition, USDA acquired access through the Department of Defense to more than 10,000 satellite images which are available at no cost and which potentially represent a cost savings of $400 to $4,400 per image. Departmental agencies use satellite imagery to manage forests, monitor natural resources, forecast crops, and conduct farm programs.

Under the auspices of the United States/South Africa Bi-National Commission, USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board has been showing South Africa how to forecast the impact of its highly variable climate on crop production. The Board arranged for a technical exchange between the developers of the Oklahoma “Mesonet” and scientists representing South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council. In return, we now receive real-time weather data collected by South African counterparts.

Similarly, an ongoing information exchange with China has yielded substantial analytical benefits. The Department’s economic and statistical agencies are helping China improve agricultural data collection and statistical practices at the local level. Through participation in this project, USDA has substantially improved its information base with respect to the present and future of China’s agricultural sector.

Departmental Administration

Mission

Departmental Administration’s mission is to provide the most effective and efficient administrative management leadership and services to support USDA agencies and enable the Department to reach its programmatic goals.

Bringing Rural America Venture Opportunities (BRAVO)

The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), in concert with its USDA partners, initiated the BRAVO Program. BRAVO will establish partnerships with American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, 1890 and 1994 institutions, Hispanic American colleges and universities (HACU), small disadvantaged companies, private corporations, and government organizations to revitalize and enrich targeted rural communities.

USDA Purchase Card and Fleet Card Consolidation A Success

On August 7, 1998, USDA awarded a task order to NationsBank to replace the current purchase card and fleet card service contracts. This award provides streamlined credit card services to the cardholders of USDA, and utilizes the state-of-the-art Purchase Card Management System (PCMS) allowing USDA employees to buy goods and services faster and at lower administrative costs. PCMS, upon full deployment, will offer approximately 18,000 purchase cardholders and 40,000 fleet cardholders an on-line reconciliation system that eliminates monthly statement and invoice processing, provides improved management oversight, demonstrates a user-friendly environment, and offers administrative cost avoidance savings in the coming years.

USDA Joins Executive Order 13101

The President issued Executive Order 13101, “Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition,” to strengthen the environmental policies of the Administration. USDA joined in this current initiative with its own biobased products to be promoted as environmentally preferable products. For the first time, USDA will attempt to link rural job growth, agricultural production, and the use of agricultural waste products to the sale of environmentally preferable products.

Contracts Mean Jobs for Persons with Disabilities

USDA achieved its strongest results to date providing a wide variety of jobs to persons with disabilities. Under the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act Program, USDA created more than 75 new full- time jobs for persons with disabilities. The single largest contract of the year provided more than 60 jobs performing the facilities management services at USDA’s new Beltsville Office Complex. More importantly, this contract is a hallmark action, being the first Commercial Facility Manager that has been awarded to a Community Rehabilitation Program by the Federal Government, opening a new service industry with potentially hundreds of jobs nationwide.

Complaint Backlogs Continue To Be Reduced

Progress was made on reducing the backlog for both program complaints and EEO complaints. By October 31, 1998, 479 program complaints had been closed out of the 1,088 that were active at the start of the year. On the EEO complaint side, 806 were closed out of the 1,523 that were active at the start of the year.

Major Program Complaints Resolved

Ten farm program discrimination complaints were resolved with findings of discrimination, and significant remedies were negotiated. As a result, debt write-off and expenses for these cases totaled $1,055,248 and compensatory damages awarded in these cases totaled $1,804,725.

Beltsville Office Facility—An Award-Winning Facility

The new Beltsville Office Facility received a Federal Energy Saver Showcase Award from the Department of Energy. The award recognizes Federal facilities operating at their peak efficiency by using energy resources wisely. A Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Construction was received on September 16, 1998, from the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. The September 1998 issue of Building Design and Construction magazine includes a positive article on the success of the complex and the innovative procurement process.

Office of Operations (OO) Is Recognized by the National Institute of Building Sciences

For the headquarters buildings in Washington, DC, OO was recognized by the National Institute of Building Sciences, a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress to encourage and accelerate the introduction of existing and new technology into the building process. An article in the publication “Excellence in Facility Management—Five Federal Case Studies” recognized the challenges faced in maintaining beautiful, old, and historically significant buildings and commended USDA for its Energy Management Program and for “going the extra mile” for the betterment of the facilities.

Welfare to Work (W2W) Goal

USDA’s OHRM has Departmentwide leadership responsibility to develop and implement this Welfare to Work (W2W) Presidential Initiative. USDA works with the National Performance Review (NPR) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to refine the requirements of the initiative, identify barriers and challenges, and develop appropriate regulations. In less than 3 years, USDA has hired 374 employees under this initiative. This number for 1999 is just one less than the goal of 375 hires by the end of fiscal year 2000. Not only is USDA committed to helping welfare recipients obtain employment, USDA is committed to helping hired employees advance. For example, Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP) established a website of W2W contacts for Federal, State, nonprofit, and community-based organizations to assure wide distribution of MRP’s vacancy announcements. MRP has hired more than 100 former welfare recipients. Rural Development brings employees in at the GS-3 level, then provides training and experience leading to the GS-7 level.

USDA Creates Departmental Office of Ethics

An Office of Ethics was established under the Assistant Secretary for Administration to support and oversee ethics training, counseling, and financial disclosure throughout the Department. Among other start-up activities, this office is engaged in developing new, more efficient means of reaching USDA employees worldwide with guidance regarding the executive branch-wide Standards of Conduct, the criminal code on conflicts of interest, and the Hatch Act rules governing political activity by government employees.

USDA Establishes a Conflict Resolution Center

A USDA Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center was established in March 1998. This office is charged with promoting effective conflict management practices to address disputes with customers and employees. The center’s emphasis will be on providing education to develop conflict resolution skills, as well as greater use of alternative dispute resolution techniques to resolve disputes quickly and inexpensively.