CIA Reading Room cia-rdp80b01676r002400020009-7: THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

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Approved For Ruse 200 IEI B01676RQ40002000 19 October 1962 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Deputy Director of Central Intelligence 1. It seems to me that the. Executive Committee is not yet functioning as it should as the Agency's top policy and planning body with the mission of advising you and the Director on the conduct of the Agency affairs. The most important function that this body can perform is to evaluate Agency performance in relation to national policy and insure that the Agency's effort is the maximum possible with our resources. 2. Thus far in the short history of its existence, the Executive Committee has reviewed several matters, some of them more inten- sively than others. The Committee has deliberated twice on the subject of the expansion of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The Com- mittee has been briefed somewhat superficially on some of Dr. Scoville Is esoteric projects and 0. Finally, the Committee has considered quite a number of matters in the managerial and administrative fields. 3. Our objective should be to develop in the Executive Committee a broad knowledge of Agency activities and a general appreciation of the relative priorities of our various efforts. As this is developed, the Executive Committee will become an increasingly valuable and effective mechanism over the years. Assume that the Executive Committee meets for an hour every Monday afternoon, we should have at least 50 meetings a year as two Mondays will probably be national holidays. If we allocate 30 to 45 minutes at each of these Executive Committee sessions to a presentation by each of the various components and major projects within the Agency, we would complete a comprehensive although not detailed look at the Agency work in just about a year's time. This would provide the Executive Committee with a background for future years' reviews that would be invaluable. These reviews would be dedicated to advising CONFIDENTIAL Ezc GROUP 1 iadcd from antomoiic downgrading and OcIasaiticatlort Approved For Release 2003/08/20 : CIA-RDP80BO1676R002400020009-7 Approved For Rise 2 U MNMT1180BOl676RW400020009-7 the Executive Committee of answers to the following questions: What are you doing ? How many people does it take ? How much does it cost ? Who are you doing it for? How effective is it? Is anybody else doing it? Should we continue to do it? It would not be necessary in these reviews to get into any great details as to organization or extensive analyses of products. In other words, the review would concentrate on placing the unit or project's work into its correct relative position with regard to the total Agency effort. 4. The reviews could be closely tied to the work of the Financial Policy and Budget Committee and in fact the Comptroller would be a primary advisor as to the order in which the reviews should be conducted. 5. If you believe that the above represents a valuable allocation of the time of the Executive Committee, I will arrange fo