MINUTES
ICASS EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
Department of Homeland Security
Suite 200
National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center
2451 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Virginia
10:00 AM
June 16, 2016
Principals in Attendance:
AgricultureBobby Richey (New)
CommerceJudy Reinke
DefenseDon Washington
Health and Human ServicesJenny Parker
Homeland SecurityMark Koumans
Intel CommunityMark Jackson
JusticeRobin Funston(Acting)
Library of CongressBeacher Wiggins
Peace CorpsJoseph Hepp
Social Security AdministrationRenee Ferguson
StateAdam Namm (IEB Chair)
TransportationMatt Medwid (Acting)
TreasuryDiane Klopack
USAIDJeff Kramer (Acting)
Ex-Officio
ICASS Service CenterSherrie Marafino
ICASS Working GroupPhilip French
State/BPSherry Hannah
State - Service Provider RepresentativeEric Stromayer
Absent:
Veterans Affairs (Principal)
Office of Management and Budget (Ex-Officio)
- Welcome:
Mr. Bruce Foucart, Director of DHS/ICE’s Intellectual Property Rights Center, welcomed attendees to the IPR Center and briefly described their function. He explained that the 23-member team is part of a Task Force whose membership also includes FBI and FDA, and is the forefront of federal investigations for IP theft. Mr. Mark Koumans, DHS, thanked Director Foucart for the description of his team’s work and directed everyone’s attention to the display case in the lobby which contained examples of IP infringement.
Mr. Koumans announced that this would be his last meeting as DHS’ representative to the ICASS Executive Board. He stated that his new job as Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs will place him in more of an operational, supervisory role for all of DHS/CBP’s international work. This promotion, he advised, means relinquishing some of the more department-level work, such as serving on the Board. He expressed pleasure in working with the Board, mentioned some of the past accomplishments and thanked all for their cooperation over the years.
- Opening Remarks:
Adam Namm, Chair of the ICASS Executive Board, thanked Mark Koumans for his years of service to the Board and congratulated him on the promotion. Mr. Namm welcomed Bobby Richey, USDA’s new representative, and provided a brief introduction of Mr. Richey’s past ICASS involvement as Council Chair and Budget Committee Chair at several posts. He took a moment to celebrate the recent promotion to Senior Executive Service for Sherry Hannah, State’s Bureau of Budget and Planning, who holds the rank of Deputy Assistant Secretary.
- Adoption of Minutes from March 17, 2016 IEB Meeting:
The March IEBminutes had been circulated, via email,to the IEB board for review prior to the June 16, 2016 meeting. The IEB minuteswere adopted with no objection.
- FY2016 ICASS by the Numbers
Peter Hogan, ICASS Service Center Deputy Director, reported on“ICASS by the Numbers,” based on Initial FY2016 Budget data. He mentioned that the FY2016 final invoices will be ready in the next few weeks and anticipates that the dollars will go down marginally. However, the real takeaway for this presentation is the return of growth in the customer base.
Mr. Hogan stated that the FY2016 initial budget is just under $3.3 billion and explained that the purpose of the presentation was to put ICASS costs into context and to show why they have risen from slightly over $1.1 billion in FY2005 to the current amount. He stated that lots of things drive costs,and while customer growthis a huge element,uncontrollable cost elements also contribute. If we look at worldwide Basic Package, which represents Americans overseas pursuing our diplomatic mission, and take out the Baghdad numbers, we see that the recent trend of minimalcustomer growth has ended. He noted thatthe projection from last summer of an increase in Basic Package of more than 700 new customers was confirmed when the initial budgets were submitted.
Mr. Hogan advised that with Baghdad costs included,worldwide per-capita cost was $126,000, while without Baghdad, it dropped to $113,000. Responding to questions, he noted that costs labelled Baghdad actually represented costs throughout Iraq because of the inclusion of the costs of all U.S. consulates in Iraq starting in FY 2014.
Returning to the data about growth in the customer base, he pointed out that State growth has continued, being driven by increases for MSG detachments, Consular Affairs, and DS-funded Regional Security Officers. State growth as seen in FY2016, for a total of about 380 new customers, also includes a number of new OBO construction managers and specialists. For the non-State agencies, Mr. Hogan stated that these agencies have added more than 400 new customers, of which 238 were DOD, 97 from USAID, 47 were added by HHS/CDC, and the fourth largest increase came from DHS with 36 positions. He advised that this growth will have implications for one of the primary metrics we follow: the per-capita cost of the so-called controllable costs, as we’ll see a little later.
In viewing the total invoice amounts (without Baghdad), Mr. Hogan noted that in FY2012 State’s share dipped below the traditional 70% and has remained at this level largely because of USAID’s growth. He explained that at the beginning of service provider consolidation with State in 2007, USAID’s share was around 5%, and now it is above 8%. Looking at the slide showing the four separate cost components of ICASS, heobserved that the Local Guard Program in FY2005 was $122 million and now in FY2016 it is $916 million, making it by far the fastest growing component of ICASS. By contrast, as new embassies and consulates are built, the relative share of ICASS in the OBO lease category has been dropping since FY2011 when, he noted, it hit a peak of $124 million.
Turning to domestic costs, Mr. Hogan cited several factors, including the impact onAmerican salary costs of the roll-out of locality pay for Foreign Service Officers, the security guard contractsin Kabul,the addition of programs such as DPM and GITM to ICASS, and changes in the strength of the U.S. dollar.
He explained several charts depicting controllable and non-controllable costs, explaining that non-controllable costs are either driven by external circumstances beyond the control of the management officer, or driven by a prior year’s decision. He gave several examples of non-controllable costs,such as State-USAID consolidation, the opening of new embassy compounds, overseas inflation, and within-grade increases. Finally, turning to controllable costs, viewing these with Iraq excluded reveals a slight decline in overall costs of about $6 million. But the per capita cost decrease in FY2016 in controllable costs, declining from $37,730 to $36,182, shows the impact, as noted earlier, of the return to broader growth in the American customer base. In response to a final question about whether FSN staff numbers were growing, as well, Mr. Hogan indicated that they were, especially among guards, and that this component would be included in the next “ICASS by the Numbers” presentation.
- 2016 ICASS Customer Satisfaction Survey Results
Steven Gibson and John McCombs, ICASS Service Center, provided background on the survey,now in its 11th year,and addressed some of the issues/concernswhich have arisen over the years for those representatives new to the Board. Mr. Gibson presented screen shots of the survey to better acquaint attendees with the mechanics, survey questions, and options for survey takers. He explained the different parts and data available for analysis. Eric Stromayer, State Service Provider Rep., said one data element that was most helpful from the Regional Bureau perspective was the report on participation levels thatJohn McCombs provides daily, from which can be seen the rate of participation by agency at each post. Mr. Gibson agreed that posts also find the daily participation report most helpful for identifying possible new methods of getting the word out or where to direct their communication.
Reporting on participation rates, Mr. Gibson explained that the base number for the participant count is obtained by pullingemployee data (U.S. direct hires, Locally-Employed (LE) staff, etc.) from Post Profiles in October. That becomes the basis for the baseline against which the ISC measures survey participation rates. He highlighted that the participation rate for the ICASS survey is incredibly high, noting that this year it was 71%. Asked about response rates of greater than 100%, he advised that since the survey baseline population does not include the family members over age 16 authorized to participate, their participation in the survey can result in rates above 100%. ICASS employees, he explained, are broken out as a separate entity, as some agencies have expressed concerns that they might rate themselves higher than others and skew the results. Someone noted that indeed when the ICASS service provider numbers are added, the overall rating significantly jumps. Mr. Gibson advised that he did not believe that they were rating themselves higher to game the system, but because they have a better understanding of the system and may be more forgiving.
Regardingcustomers’ overall satisfaction with ICASS services, Mr. Gibsonsaid the score has been risingconsistently above 4.0 on a 5.0 scale. Asked about low rated posts and their averages, Mr. McCombs advised that their scores were normally in the upper threes, such as, 3.6 or 3.8, but there were no real outliers.
Displaying a chart ranking the quality of services based on 2016 scores from highest, Residential Local Guard, to lowest, Leasing Services, and comparing them to their 2015 scores, Mr. Gibson, noted that there were no large jumps in score changes or rankings, and advised that survey scores should always be viewed over several years to see any trends, rather than a single year. Another data item which should be included in the analysis, he advised, was the report showing how important a service is to the customer juxtaposed with the ranking score so that the service provider can see how well they are serving customers in the service areas most important to them. This helps the service provider focus their improvement effortson the services with the greatest gap between importance and rating.
Mr. Gibson reported that the data is made available to posts about a month after the close of the survey via the ICASS OpenNet website. He advised, however, the narrative Comments portion of the survey are not shared through the website, but sent directly to the Management Officer, ICASS Council Chair and DCM. This gives post the opportunity to check for inappropriate comments, which can be redacted before deciding whether or not to sharewithin the post. He explained that the information should be used as the basis for discussions in the Annual Assessment, along with data gathered from other sources, e.g. eServices. The Annual Assessment he noted is prepared by the Council Chair and Management Officer and is sent to the Ambassador through the DCM.
In the past, he stated, to get an idea if there were any common concerns regarding services, one had to read through the very numerous comments from all posts. He reported that the employment of a text analytics tool has done the work for them, making the comments portion of the survey more usable. Asked if posts used the comments in the EER process as a means to address anyissues raised, he said survey comments are considered, but they are most often addressed through the Annual Assessment on the whole service rather than individuals,except for the Management Officer. While it was also noted that some comments are driven more by external forces out of the service provider’s control, e.g. housing size policies, posts can manage expectations through education efforts.
- Service Provider Update:
Mr. Eric Stromayer, State Department’s AF/EX ExecutiveDirector andService Provider Representative to the IEB,addressed a recent discovery of employee theft and fraud at Embassy Tbilisi.
He advised that the methodology used has been closely examined and shared broadly among missions in an effort to bring awareness to underlying vulnerabilities and draw valuable lessonson how to deter and detect fraudulent activity. The regional bureaus have convened an internal controls working group, he explained, which also includes the ICASS Service Center and the Office of Logistics Management, to assess how to address the problem.
As part of the efforts to educate service providers on how to detect fraud, Mr. Stromayer reported that the Internal Controls Working Group is developing an ALDAC cable with some lessons learned and best practices. They will also develop an internal controls checklist for the management section to address these specific kinds of fraud. Also, the annual Chief of Mission certification of management controls will undergo a fairly significant revamp, specifically to get the front offices to be more focused on this issue and the service provider to ensure that there is greater accountability. He announced that some posts have proactively seized on this issue, e.g., Amman is focusing on their fuel theft problem.
Mr. Stromayer reported that they are ramping up efforts to provide useful data analytics to posts that can flag anomalies in data collection, so that attention can be focused on areas where there may be problems, and also to deploy tools that could identify problems. One overriding goal, he explained, is to partner with locally employed staff and avoidan ‘us-versus-them’ environment enlist them in anti-fraud efforts. Transparency and open communication are keys to these efforts to build greater accountability. He noted that in the AF region one of the biggest problems is having enough staff to implement controls required for proper accountability.
In closing, Mr. Stromayer reported that regarding OCCI, they are awaiting the final ICASS budgets to verify continuing containment of ICASS cost growth. They will continue to focus on general services and building operations in the second year of OCCI, as many projects require infrastructure investments which take time to show a return on investments. He advised that a more detailed OCCI report will be given at the next meeting.
Mr. Stromayer announced that his time in this rotational position is ending, and that Heather Townsend, his counterpart in European Affairs and International Organizations, will replace him beginning with the fall meeting. He stated that it had been a pleasure working with the IEB.
- Budget Update
Sherry Hannah, from the State Department’s Bureau of Budget and Planning, provided an update on the State Department’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 ICASS budget, and the budgetprocess for FY2017 and FY 2018. Ms. Hannah provided slides to update the budget setting process for FY2016, which came in 2.8 percent below the initial target. This is largely due, she advised, to the application of carryover to offset the target. Some of that carryover will have been restored going into FY2017, she explained, and some of those reductions will be permanent in FY2017. FY2016 also saw a $34 million offset because of exchange rate gains, but she cautioned that it is now trending into the loss arena.
Ms. Hannah reported that one of the significant increases that was included in the FY2016 initial target was approximately $22 million for LE Staff wage increases based on the understanding they would be funded at the 70th percentile where warranted. She noted that after talks with Congress on where funding would be for FY2017, it was decided to hold LE wage increases to the 65th percentile to sustain increases already implemented, while maintaining the possibility of an increase fora larger portion of the posts in FY2016. She explained that even with this reduction from the 70th to the 65th percentile, a significant number of posts are still slated to receive an increase. Asked about the roll out process for wage increases, Ms. Hannah explained the steps and identified concerns raised in the prior year, where higher graded LE staff received a larger increase than those in a lower grade, leading some posts to request a realignment of increases. She said some posts LE staff declinedhigher raises and requested they be pushed down to cover the lower grades. She noted that the process is just kicking off and they will see how the process actually plays out for FY2016. Bobby Richey, USDA, noted that although posts were told they could request realignment exceptions last year, that he was told none were granted, and requested confirmation of this. Ms. Hannah noted that this was true last year, in part due to the challenge of implementing wage increases as quickly as possible. She added that she was uncertain whether realignment requests will be considered for FY 2016, but noted she would provide an update if there will be a change in this position.
Referring to a slide on the Forward Planning process, Ms. Hannah explained that it is one of the data visualization slides BP is including as part of the final target setting process. Representing the historical three-year average regional bureau targets, showing actual levels for FY2014, FY2015 and FY2016, she reported that the NEA region had the most significant increase, due in large part to bringing Iraq in to ICASS.