Chief of credit union oversight agency vows to cut staff

The acting chairman of the National Credit Union Administration wants to cut his agency's staff by at least 4 percent in the next two years. "We need more efficient use of agency resources if we are to be more effective," Dennis Dollar told NCUA managers at the agency's management conference in St. Petersburg, Fla. "We cannot continue to grow the agency's budget year after year without stopping to examine carefully what we do and how we do it." NCUA oversees federal credit unions and has about 1,000 employees spread across six regions and at its headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Dollar said he would accomplish his goal through attrition and without layoffs. NCUA spokesman Nicholas Owens said the proposed cuts are "efficiency driven, not cuts for the sake of cuts." An internal working group appointed by Dollar and dubbed AIM, for Accountability in Management, will recommend an agency and staff reorganization to the agency's board, which has the last word on the issue. "I have instructed the AIM working group to take an approach of 'no holds barred' and 'no sacred cows,'" Dollar said. "I predict we can eliminate some slots through attrition up and down the line without any sacrifice of safety and soundness." Owens said NCUA is committed to meeting President Bush's goal of restructuring the federal workforce. "We certainly share the President's concern about bureaucracy in the federal government," Owens said. "We're certain that within our management structure we can put in place and bring about a more efficient administration."