* Includes State and Local Treasuries, Insurance Companies, Savings and Loans, Corporations, Pension Funds, etc.

Source: Calculated from data in Federal Reserve Bulletin, June, 1988.

Chapter Nineteen

THE BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT KEEPS PACE

Despite the series of reorganizations the Bureau of the Public Debt underwent during the 1970s, its overall organization remained constant. What had changed was the emphasis of the staff functions, which reflected the increasing importance of automated data processing at the Bureau.

Organization

In the 1980s, the overall debt administration work of the Bureau was still organized by product. The sale and redemption of marketable securities took place in the Office of Washington Operations located in the Engraving and Printing Annex where about 700 persons were employed. Savings bond operations were housed in Parkersburg, West Virginia, with a staff of 1,150 employees. About 200 persons worked in the Office of Administration in Washington. This office had been reorganized on November 1, 1981, when the Division of Management and Support Services had been replaced by three new Divisions: Management Analysis, Personnel Management and Administrative Services. The ADP Management Division performed computer systems design work with a staff divided between Washington (50 persons) and Parkersburg (30 persons). The Office of Financing had charge of the auctioning of marketable securities with its staff of 12. The Division of Internal Audit and the Office of Chief Counsel rounded out operations with staffs of 25 and 13, respectively. Additional office space was contained in the main Treasury building and three office buildings in Washington. The total number of employees was about 2,200. 1 The organizational chart of Bureau operations in March 1982 is given in Figure Twenty-five.

1 Bureau of the Public Debt, Bureau of Public Debt-Talking Points, Report, (Washington, D.C.: BPD Files 120.9 IDF, June 10, 1982).

In 1981 a T-Bill Systems Development Group had been formed to implement automation of the T-Bill book-entry system. The group was composed of about 30 system accountants, computer specialists and support staff. As the high interest rates of the period enticed more individual investors into the purchase of marketable government securities, the workload at the Bureau had continued to expand. In the area of Treasury bills, for example, the number of accounts had grown from 20,000 in 1977 to over 800,000 accounts in 1981. 2 The number of open Treasury bill accounts would moderate over the rest of the 1980s, reaching 915,463 in July 1982, 924,764 in July 1984, 3 and leveling off thereafter to 772,000 in August 1986 as interest rates declined to their lowest level in 9 years. 4 Registered bond and note accounts also showed a sharp increase of 211,000 in one year, as their total went to 853,539 in July 1984. 5 By February 1985, the Bureau was paying interest on 1,047,593 open accounts of registered bonds and notes. 6 Automation of these accounts under the TREASURY DIRECT system in 1986, to be more fully described below, would be a significant event at the Bureau during the 1980s. Meanwhile, other measures were being taken to improve the efficiency of operations. By July 1984, 24 of the Federal Reserve Banks and Branches were reporting auction tender information (for entry into accounts in Washington) for Treasury bills on magnetic tape, making up 92 percent of the total tenders submitted through the Federal Reserve that month. In addition, 84 percent of the Treasury bills maturing on July 5, 1984, had been reinvested, the highest rate in the history of the book-entry system. 7

Reorganization

Several reorganizations took place in the 1980s. In October 1984, the establishment of a new Office of Automated Information Sys

2 Bureau of the Public Debt, "The Commissioner's Treasury Bill Committee", PD News, June 1982, 5.

3 Commissioner of the Public Debt, Monthly Status Report for July 1984, (Washington, D.C.: BPD files).

Commissioner of the Public Debt, Monthly Status Report for August 1986, (Washington, D.C.: BPD Files).

5 Commissioner, Monthly Status Report, July 1984.

6

Commissioner of the Public Debt, Monthly Status Report for February 1985, (Washington, D.C.: BPD files).

7 Commissioner, Monthly Status Report, July 1984.