SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Remove personnel incentives to pass program milestones in ANY acquisition program. Personal grades and promotions should be on successful management of a program, not if it passes milestones. Successful management can include stopping a program and rolling it back to a previous milestone if so warranted.

If a program is created with bad requirements, has poor implementation, has insufficiently developed technology,... more »

In 2005 I took advantage of the "Gain Sharing Travel Program" which offers incentives to travelers when they help reduce Government Travel Expenses.

The traveler has the option to choose lodging at an approved facility at a lower rate, or if the option is available, obtain accommodations with family or friends.

For lodging at an approved facility in Philadelphia, based on a formula which offered an incentive for... more »

The USG lodging allowance in many locations is very high.
When on TDY, employees should be encouraged to use a cheaper hotel and receive an incentive of 50% of the difference between the chosen hotel and the maximum per-diem.
For example: if the lodging allowance in Paris, France is $410 but the traveler is staying at a hotel charging only $300 per night, he/she will receive an incentive of $55/night.
The government... more »

When people travel and overnight stays are involved, give the traveler the choice of staying at the home of a friend or relative, and pay the traveler one half of the amount that would be allowed for a hotel.  Depending on the circumstances, this could save a large amount of money.  For example, if I make a two-night trip to D.C., the savings would be over $200.  Depending on who the "host" is, the traveler could choose... more »

Throughout the time I have worked for DOD I have seen so many ways that money is being wasted.
Shops and codes have a set amount of money a year they can spend on for their budget. Some spend it all at once, which doesn't work well, because when it gets close to the end of the fiscal year, they have run out of many items and don't have the money in their budget to get more, or they have to borrow money. Then other's... more »

I suggest to provide incentives for those eligible for retirement to actually retire. Make available about $20k incentive government wide to retire for those eligible to retire.
This will save money by those at the higher end of the pay scales being replaced with new hires at the lower end of the pay scales.
This will also lower the unemployment rate. I conservatively guess about 100,000 workers would take the offer.... more »

I work in the Air Force as a Contracting Specialist. We buy everything the AF requires in order to accomplish the mission; anything from services (i.e. removing trash), commodities (computers), construction (offices) or systems (aircraft). We deal with all the organizations' budget and try to find the best deal. The main problem that i find, and the easiest solution to save a lot of money would be providing incentive... more »

U.S. military personnel currently function under the traditional Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) policy while stationed abroad. This policy is a “Use-or-Lose” policy which does not incentivize those who do not refrain from spending their OHA entitlements to the maximum allotted level. This provides a diminishing “Return On Investment” (ROI) but is the only option to OCONUS personnel. This, in turn, causes unnecessary... more »

Encourage employees to choose the lowest hotel rate below the Per Diem by giving them 10% of the amount below the Per Diem. Example, if the Per Diem is $200 and the final hotel bill is $100, the traveler would receive 10% of the amount below the Per Diem - $10.

The current structure does not provide any incentive for reducing travel expense by finding a hotel under the per diem rate. If the rate in a city is $90 per night but there are hotels offered for $60, the traveler would not select the lesser expensive hotel.

There should be a system in place to split the savings between both the traveler and government. 50/50 would suffice, but this could be adjusted. Using the above... more »

I think the best way to incentivize efficiency is let the agency keep the money by saving it in T-bills or savings bonds. Set an arbitrary limit to like 10% of the annual budget may be saved. Anything beyond that means the agency was over-funded and would need to return the money beyond the 10% delta. Allowing agencies and departments to save up to 10% of their annual budget means in a lean year when unemployment is... more »

All of the program offices I have worked for, try and spend every last dollar of their budget by the time it expires. They know if they don't, they won't get that same amount next year. So what they do is spend the leftover on large monitors, new computers, blackberries, furniture, refurbishing, etc. They also over fund their existing contractors by hiring new bodies and fund the quickest contract they can get on contract.... more »

The JFTR should be changed to allow members to both seek less expensive travel options on an individual basis, as well as benefit from those savings.

Frequently, the government rate for airfare, hotels, and rental cars is much higher than the rates available to travelers making personal reservations.

Similar to the Personally Procured Move program that allows PCS'g members to capture a monetary incentive for finding... more »

Provide an incentive for people to purchase or rent a place to live that is close to work. At many locations, people commute great distances to get to work. Offering the incentive, which could be in the form of a reduced interest loan or one time payout linked to continued occupancy, would encourage people to live closer to where they work. This would reduce pollution and time spent on the road and away from families,... more »

Providing each employee with a small portion of the money their agency saved will drastically change the way they spend. Sort of a bonus for not wasting, and available to all federal employees, supervisors, and office holders. Many agencies already have bonus funds. Maybe we could add 20% of their savings to the bonus pot.

Currently federal employees actually have an incentive to spend. The average federal employee’s... more »