SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

People should be discouraged from staying on welfare or Section 8 or any other income-based program indefinitely. We don't have to kick them off the programs, but let's encourage them to seek employment that earns them more money. We can do so by requiring them to contribute an increasing percentage of their income to covering the costs of the program.

For example, currently all Section 8 participants pay 30% of their... more »

It should be obvious to everyone that renting a U-Haul and moving yourself is a much cheaper option than spending enormous amounts of money to have professional moving companies move household goods when federal employees transfer to a new duty station. The governemnt should offer to cover the costs associated with moving your possesions yourself along with a cash incentive for doing so. The self moving costs even with... more »

It won't be a popular idea, but stop all cash awards. Implement incentives such as time off awards that do not require extra funds.

As we all know, at the end of the FY each agency scrambles to spend what is left in their budgets. Most of the spending is careless and wasteful. The primary reason for this is because the departements know that if they do not exhaust their budget, they will not get those funds back in their next budget.

President Obama should recognize this wasteful spending and offer enticing incentives for agencies that do not... more »

Our states collect child-support money and deposit it in a state fund, but the federal government pays most of the administrative costs and, therefore, dictates the way the system operates through mandates and financial incentives. The federal government pays 66 percent of the states' administrative overhead costs, 80 percent of computer and technology-enhancement costs, and 90 percent of DNA testing for paternity.... more »

Each year if we don't spend all of our alloted program dollars it goes back to the black hole. While I understand that this needs to be the case, we are then penalized with a cut to our program the following year. Based on the logic that since we did not need it last year we won't need it this year. This leads to employees frantic year end spending. Buying that extra GPS or survey equipment, etc. Programs and employee's... more »

Action. That's what we need to do. Don't think about it. Just do it. Too often we, the government, jump in with both barrels blazing so that we can be seen as doing something. We measure things...just so that we can say we're measuring. It seems we don't stop to think about the consequences/results of our activities.

This is true for all government activities, large and small.

Examples:

What is the result of... more »

Each year, towards the the end of the fiscal year (around September), military commands around the world scrammble to spend the remaining money in their budget for fear that their funding for the next fiscal year will be cut (take a mark).

Rather than penalizing commands for not spending their money, they should be rewarded for their savings. A small portion of the money they turn back should be given back to the... more »

An organization as large as the US government will never control costs without appropriately aligned incentives for individual employees. The solution to sustained federal cost savings is a shift in focus from management of dollars to management of incentives.

Federal employees squander millions of dollars and justifying it by saying, “If we don’t spend it this year, we won’t get it next year.” This causes a ratchet... more »

Often agencies spend money at the end of the FY so their budget won't be cut by the amount they save. Instead, as a method to cut spending, allow the agency's budget to remain at the same burn rate as previous months, but allow them to not spend as much during the last month of the fiscal year. This will, in particular, save millions in wasted flying time hours when units fly unnecessarily in order to use all their... more »

I propose that if federal employees choose to stay somewhere cheaper than the GSA lodging rate in that area, they are able to keep 50% of their savings. This policy should still apply if the employee chooses to stay with friends/family for free, in which case they should still be reimbursed for half the GSA lodging rate.

Moving just one employee can easily cost the gov't over $100k, and strain the budgets of hiring offices. Yet, I do not believe there is any incentive to the employee to reduce costs of moving household goods -- by way of decluttering or deciding that items are worth less than the cost to move them. There should be a mechanism by which if the employee were able to reduce the costs of moving their household goods, they... more »

There are thousands of processes in our society that could be made more energy efficient. In this forum, people bring up ideas that concentrate in one area or another...waste, water, electicity, automobiles, ect...The ability to conserve is out there all around us, but the vast majority of people do not participate to the least extent. Why? Are they unaware? Or unmotivated? I think our leadership, local and national,... more »

Eliminate hiring incentives, or make the time a new hire has to serve longer to get the incentive.

Agency cash bonus programs are poorly and unfairly managed and completely incompatible with an economic crisis. These days, the performance incentive should be that you get to keep your job and recognition can come in better, cheaper, ways.