Professional Documents
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TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
I am pleased to issue the IPBS guidance for FY 2014 - FY 2015 to our posts. The Office of
Strategic Information, Research, and Planning (OSIRP) worked closely with the Office of the
Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), the Office of Global Operations, the Regions, and other key
stakeholders to develop this years guidance. Building on last years process improvements,
OSIRP collaborated this year with the Regions to create a PDF template to capture posts IPBS
submissions. This will serve to standardize the IPBS submissions, facilitate the process for
posts, and allow for easier content analysis. In an effort to more closely link planning with
budget, OCFO and OSIRP have incorporated the Regions request for posts to develop a
preliminary zero-based budget for FY 2014. Posts will develop this preliminary budget plan
utilizing the Hyperion software, in addition to their budget narrative.
Please note that the guidance directs our posts to develop strategic plans for the next two fiscal
years only (as opposed to past IPBS exercises which requested three years of planning
information). This step has been taken to align the IPBS process with the agencys budget cycle,
the trainee allocation process, and our next agency-wide Strategic Plan, which will be based on
the new four-year cycle outlined in the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act
(GPRA-MA). Beginning in FY 2014, posts will be directed to complete their full IPBS
submissions once every two years, with a significantly shorter submission requested for the
alternating years, thereby implementing a strategic planning system that consists of on and off
years. This approach will retain the flexibility required for strategic planning at the operational
level while reducing annual reporting requirements for posts.
Please review this document carefully. Preparing your IPBS submission will require a
significant analytical effort at post and extensive discussions among staff, Volunteers, and local
partners. The due date for your submission this year is March 8.
I am committed to ensuring a transparent and interactive process for preparing and reviewing
your IPBS submission. As was the case last year, the IPBS submissions will be reviewed by the
Regions and discussed with posts before being presented to the Office of Global Operations and
OCFO for clearance. These offices will then present the cleared IPBS submissions to me for
review and approval. The final approved IPBS submissions will then be posted on the Peace
Corps Intranet.
This year, we again distributed IPBS pre-guidance to allow posts to get a head start on their
planning process. The pre-guidance was issued on December 11 and provides posts with a
consolidated set of tools and suggested data sources that we believe you will find extremely
useful.