Federal government employment during the same period, it is important to note that during the 1970s the total dollar value of the public debt nearly tripled, and the average maturity of the debt was approximately half of its level in the 1960s, pointing up the extensive use of more frequent offerings of shorter-term issues during the period. The Bureau's capability to administer this increased workload was enhanced by expansion of the book-entry system, in The government's fiscal year end was changed from June 30 to September 30 in 1976. # These holdings were included in other categories for prior years. Sources: Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury 1970, p. 14, 1975, p. 14 and 1980, P. 13. creased use of automated data processing equipment, and continued improvements in management and organization. Table Fifteen contains information about employment levels during the 1970s. TABLE FIFTEEN Employees at the Bureau of the Public Debt, Selected Years Source: Personnel Reports of Full-Time Employees, Bureau of the Public Debt File D-200.5. The Book-Entry System The book-entry system for registering securities was extended in 1970 to include securities deposited with Federal Reserve Banks stemming from deposits of securities at commercial banks by political subdivisions or from performance obligations in connection with legal cases. Treasury securities held by the New York Federal Reserve Bank as part of its open market operations or for most of its official foreign accounts were also converted into book-entry form. The total of marketable book-entry securities was $100 billion. In addition, eight industrial savings plans using U.S. Savings Bonds were put into book-entry form. Book-entry transactions were simply recorded in account books of the Federal Reserve Banks, eliminating the need to issue, reissue or retire physical securities. The use of book-entry thus greatly reduced administrative costs. 42 In 1971 a large study of records relating to the processing of claims for lost and stolen marketable securities was undertaken; the total of losses and thefts of securities had risen dramatically to $30 million in 1969 and 1970. As a result of this study, on May 27, 1971, Congress approved a law permitting the Bureau to speed up the replacement of stolen or lost securities. Previously, the person or corporation with the missing securities had to wait until maturity to recover the value of their securities. The new procedure aimed at providing better service to the financial community. 43 The total number of cases of lost or stolen securities that the Bureau was able to settle within 6 months nearly doubled. 44 As the book-entry system was expanded, the problem of loss or theft of physical securities was reduced significantly. Treasury began in 1971 to expand the scope of participation in book-entry securities by means of computer records in financial institutions instead of the physical securities. By 1973, that form was available through Federal Reserve Member Banks to their correspondent banks, government securities dealers and other customers of the banks, in addition to those held for the banks' own accounts. In 1970, $112 billion, or 47 percent of the $240 billion in marketable debt was held in book-entry form. By 1975, $273 billion, or 75 percent of the then outstanding $364 billion was in the new form. 45 42 Secretary, Annual Report, 1970, 102. 43 Secretary, Annual Report, 1971, 109. 44 Public Debt News, First Quarter, 1972, 5. 45 Bureau of the Public Debt, Office of the Commissioner, Staff Papers, March 1985; November 1987. Computer Operations In 1970, all operations in the Washington Office that had previously been done on manual tabulating machines were fully converted to computer operations. 46 In 1971, the Parkersburg Office leased an additional Honeywell H-1250 computer to handle the increased work load from savings bond sales. It was also reported that the use of new encoders for entering data directly to tape had increased productivity by 12 percent. 47 In 1973, the Division of ADP Services oversaw the installation of a Univac 1108 computer system in the Washington Office. Although the plans called for turning the system's operation over to the Office of the Secretary, it would serve the needs of the Bureau and several other Treasury agencies. Indeed, the Office of Tax Policy was asking to use the system as a back-up while it was still being tested, citing "the urgent nature of the President's tax program." 48 The new system would have much greater speed and storage capacity compared to the Honeywell system. Because of better use of tapes, card readers and disk drives, the Univac system would be 24 times larger in capacity and 16 times faster than the older computer. 49 ADP Services also converted programs of the Washington Office to the new system. 50 After the installation of the automatic data processing equipment in the 1960s, the time and effort required to search records for evidence of lost or stolen savings bonds was quickly reduced. But as more bonds were added to the register, the search time greatly increased. By 1969 an inquiry that would have necessitated 6 electronic searches in 1960 required 15 searches. At this time, the register was compiled on the basis of bond serial number and by issuer's last name (first six letters), first initial and city of issue. The problem was that for each year, the number of entries could expand by 1 to 12 purchases for each of 7 denominations, for a total of 84 entries. Additional computer equipment was requested to handle 46 Secretary, Annual Report, 1970, 102. 47 Secretary, Annual Report, 1971, 110. 48 Frederick W. Hickman, Memo to H.J. Hintgen, (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Public Debt File 120.611, April 3, 1973). 49 50 Public Debt News, First Quarter 1973, 4. this extra work. 51 This situation was eased in 1974 when bond purchasers were required to provide their social security numbers for inscription on bonds. In addition to the social security number, each bond record contained the bond serial number, date of issue and four characters of the purchaser's surname. Bond searches became much more efficient; a purchaser's entire holdings could be located with a single inquiry, although care was taken to restrict the search to the requested denomination and date. 52 The Organization Several important organizational changes took place at The Bureau in the early 1970s. In 1970 the internal audit activity was reformed as the Internal Audit Service and given greater centralized responsibility. 53 In 1971 the Administrative Services Office in Washington was divided into two branches, the Printing and Procurement Branch and the Office Facilities Branch. The Computer Programming Section was reassigned from the Division of Data Processing to the Management Analysis Office. 54 Early in 1972 Commissioner H.J. Hintgen reported the ending of the nearly 100-year-old Division of Loans and Currency. In reviewing the need for the change, Hintgen said, "The use of the word "Loans" in this connection has been out-of-date for many years, and all of the "Currency" functions have been transferred elsewhere." 55 As part of this change, the registered accounts function was moved from the old Division of Loans and Currency to the Division of Public Debt Accounts; at the same time, the remaining work of the Division of Loans and Currency was added to the activities of the Division of Retired Securities to create a new entity named the Division of Securities Operations. 56 The Washington Office was further changed in August 1970 by consolidating the Office Facilities Branch, Printing and Procurement 51 Request for Purchase of Computer Equipment, (Parkersburg Office Preliminary Review, September 1969), 10-12. 52 Bureau of the Public Debt, Internal Memo, (Washington, D.C.: October 18 1974). 53 Secretary, Annual Report, 1970, 103. 54 Secretary, Annual Report, 1972, 110. 55 H.J. Hintgen, Circular letter, BPD file D-120.9, March 20, 1972. 56 Secretary, Annual Report, 1972, 119. Branch, Management Analysis Office and the Destruction Committee under the central direction of the Division of Management Services. 57 The new division would be led by a Director immediately responsible to the Deputy Commissioner. The overall function of the Division of Management Services would be to coordinate and administer programs for cost reduction and operations improvements on a Bureau-wide basis. 58 Efforts to streamline operations continued in 1974 with a series of major changes in the Washington Office. The new organization consisted of a merger of the Securities Division of the old Office of the Treasurer of the United States with the Bureau's Division of Securities Operations; development of a Division of Management Analysis; combination of separate accounting and reporting functions in the Accounts Branch; splitting the ADP Services Division into three branches; and upgrading the Internal Audit Office to a division under a Director. 59 Figure Twenty-one shows the organization chart of the Bureau as of March 1974. Consolidation at Parkersburg Major changes were also taking place at the Parkersburg and Chicago Offices at this time. In April 1970 the Fiscal Assistant Secretary sought permission to determine the feasibility of consolidating the Public Debt Field Offices in order to correlate the activities taking place in Parkersburg and Chicago, to improve efficiency and to take advantage of the favorable labor market in Parkersburg. Plans to move the Chicago Office to Parkersburg were realized on June 30, 1971, when Congress passed a bill that contained an appropriation to underwrite the project. 60 The first phase of the consolidation took place in 1972, when the claims adjudication function was moved to Parkersburg. 61 In addition, a significant "new beginning" occurred on June 9, 1973, when ground was broken for a new building in Parkersburg. 62 The phasing out of operations in the Chicago Office move continued in 1974, with several additional functions being moved to Parkersburg. 57 Secretary, Annual Report, 1973, 117. 58 Bureau of the Public Debt, Internal Memo, BPD File D-120.9, August 30, 1972. 59 Secretary, Annual Report, 1974, 132. 60 Bureau of the Public Debt, Internal Memo, Undated, located in BPD files, 5. 61 Secretary, Annual Report, 1972, 121. Secretary, Annual Report, 1973, 117. |