The Use and Benefits of a Working Capital Fund for Consolidated IT Services in the U.S. Department of State

Executive Summary

In 2007, the Secretary of State directed the Department to consolidate domestic workstation support under the Chief Information Officer. At that time, user and technical workstation support was provided by twenty-seven separate organizational units.

The use of a Working Capital Fund (WCF) facilitated this transition. The Department’s legislative authority for providing services by means of a WCF pre-existed the consolidation decision. Using the WCF permitted the Department to affect the transition to consolidated IT desktop support with the concurrence of OMB and notification to Congress of some aspects of the transition. The no-year WCF allowed the new IT Consolidated Services Cost Center the flexibility to set the number of government employees and to carry forward into future years the funds that would replace capital equipment when required. Further, the fee-for-service model that the WCF provides keeps the responsibility for funding within the bureaus that consume the services, involving them through a representative advisory group that oversees the level and quality of service provided to all.

The subject of this paper is the budget execution challenges and solutions that occurred throughout the transition from twenty-seven separately funded organizations to one primary and four residual organizations that exist today.