OFFICE OF CONTRACTS AND PROCUREMENT The Office of Contracts and Procurement develops and administers procurement management policies for all elements of NHTSA, including regional offices. This involves planning and administering the Administration's procurement program in accordance with Federal and Departmental procurement policy and procedures. Other functions include the solicitation of bids and proposals, contract awards, and administrative contract management. The requested increase of 11 positions is related to the scheduled increase in the Nine of these positions are required to administer the many activities necessary for support of the ASAP projects, which are increased from 29 in 1971 to 40 in 1972, and research activities in the Alcohol Countermeasures program. OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES The Office of Administrative Services plans and administers NHTSA programs to The requested increase of two positions is required to provide support services for the new and increased program responsibilities. Increases are expected to follow the increase in program employees who will generate new forms, directives and reports to carry out program objectives. One additional position is required to cover additional field liaison responsibility formerly provided by FHWA for arrangement of space and coordination of all administrative services. REIMBURSABLE PROGRAMS NHTSA currently has an administrative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration wherein FHWA furnishes computer and payroll services for the NHTSA headquarters offices on a reimbursable basis. The increase of one position requested for the Investigations and Security function is supported by workload incurred by the Office of the Secretary in providing a continuing level of service for NHTSA programs. The requirements of this function can no longer be met through the services of a temporary employee. The increase in personnel compensation and benefits is directly related to the proposed increase of 18 positions in 1972. TRAVEL The proposed increase in travel is directly related to the addition of professional positions and increased staff assistance to field offices. OTHER OBJECTS This category of expense includes the entire cost of all headquarters support expenses such as communications, printing, supplies, equipment, etc. It also includes the cost of computer services provided for various administrative needs and for the contract program shown below: The increase is related to the additional new positions and the expansion of the contract program in 1972. The objectives of the program are to obtain computer programming and data processing services and to provide computer planning, analysis and design support. MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 1971 1972 Decrease (-) -0 -$60 This activity allows for the preparation of a manual to provide NHTSA assumption of all accounting and reporting responsibilities previously furnished by FHWA. This item is nonrecurring in 1972. ANALYSIS OF REQUESTED 1972 INCREASE Mr. McFALL. You are requesting about a 17-percent increase in the staff for this office. Why do you need these 18 additional positions? Mr. Toмs. All right. You are talking about the 18 positions on page 44? Mr. McFALL. The 17-percent increase is on page 44. Mr. Scort. Actually, Mr. Chairman, I think that you will be the first to agree that considering our contract program where we are requesting an increase of nearly a hundred percent, an increase of only 11 positions in the Office of Contracts and Procurement from 19, is very modest in comparison with the significant projected increase in workload. Of these 18 new positions, 11 are for contract procurement, nine of which are in direct support of the ASAP contracts, two are related to other increases in the contract program. Two of the 18 positions are in the personnel management area. We think this is reasonable in relationship to the total increase of 100 positions. We would also like to point out at the present time we have no full time training officer and this is a significant deficiency in our administrative support area. One position is requested for management systems. The purpose of this position would be to participate fully in a departmentwide management improvement effort to improve our work measurement indices. We refer to this as our staffing validation program. We hope that through this effort we will have a more objective and scientific basis for identifying and justifying future adjustments in staffing. The Budget Office needs one position. There are two positions for administrative services, and this is directly related to the increase in total personnel. These positions would provide assistance in such areas as directives and reports management and also basic administrative services needs. They would also provide additional support and advice to our very small administrative units in the field. The eighteenth position is for the investigation and security function. BREAKDOWN OF INCREASE Mr. McFALL. Make sure that the record contains a breakdown of your $611 thousand increase for salaries and supportive service. Mr. Toмs. All right. ADDITIONAL POSITIONS FOR CONTRACTING Mr. McFALL. On page 47 you are requesting 11 additional positions for your contracts office. Would you provide a breakdown of the number of contracts you are proposing to award in fiscal year 1972 as compared with 1971? (The information follows:) CONTRACTS AND PROCUREMENT WORKLOAD Approximately 250 contracts are estimated to be awarded in fiscal year 1972. This compares to about 170 awards made in fiscal year 1971. In addition to new awards, the administration, final negotiation, and close-out of approximately 180 contracts which expired in fiscal year 1970 and fiscal year 1971 must be provided for. Over 100 contracts are also expected to expire in fiscal year 1972. COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS Mr. McFALL. On page 48, for what types of activities are you using computers? Who is providing your programing and other supporting work? Do you have any in-house personnel in this area? If so, how many? (The information follows:) Computers are being utilized to support priority programs and the bulk of this support is provided for alcohol/drug tests and alcohol action programs, air bag and vehicle structures testing, and experimental safety vehicle simulations. The largest inhouse program is the national driver register system. Programing and other supporting work is provided by the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Harry Diamond Laboratory, and on the West Coast, the Navy and UCLA. Three full-time professionals are currently employed in this area. Mr. CONTE. What has caused the intensification of activity in NHTSA's 10 regional offices which in turn has necessitated your request for an additional person for the Office of Budget? Mr. Toмs. Staffing in our regional offices has increased from 62 positions in 1970 to 101 positions in 1971 and we are requesting an additional 29 positions for 1972 which, if approved, would place our regional staffing at 130 positions. The increase in 1971 was necessary to handle increased workload generated by the need to provide technical support to the States and their local communities in the management of highway safety grant programs. Part of the increase was also required to provide administrative support services such as voucher examinations, financial system analyses, and related activities. The increase for 1972 is associated with the expansion in our alcohol safety action programs. These increases, in turn, intensify activity in the budget execution area, which is the responsibility of the Office of Budget. As indicated in our justifications each regional office will have diversified budgetary requirements due to factors such as differences in geographic coverage, level of reimbursable services, and level of State grant allocations. The additional position requested for the Budget Office in 1972 is required, for the most part, to ascertain that regional office resources are being effectively managed. COMPLIANCE TEST FACILITY Mr. McFALL. Turn to the Compliance Test Facility, and insert pages 50 and 51. (The pages referred to follow :) |