SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Purchase card transaction preapproval should be eliminated because costs outweigh benefits given the checks & limits of the DHHS purchase card program (transaction computer monitoring; monthly reconciliation, supervisor review, administrative review; audits).

There is a cost to create transaction requests & to keep & file all the records spawned by such requests. There is a cost to have a supervisory review each transaction... more »

The National Park Service currently pays millions of dollars to print park maps for visitors. Ironically, they just fall apart after being used. They are also cumbersome to keep safely stored and away from the weather. My suggestion is for the National Park Service to offer visitors the option of downloading park maps onto their phones/pc in advance of their trip, or when they enter the park. Since most phones now... more »

Use regular state-issued lisences and focus on training and safety, instead of unnecessary and useless paperwork

This is a lot of unnecessary and useless paperwork. The 182 is no longer needed for payment. Most training courses can be registered for online. Personnel offices do not have time to keep track of everyone's training. It should be a purchase approved by the supervisor using simplified acquisition procedures, not add this extra burden of filling out this cumbersome form

The grass is always greener, until you get to the other side---But employees do not know that until they get there. Departments with large agencies (especially those with heavy turnover) might consider "spec opportunities" for employees to spend a week (or month) intra-departmentally to review an agency before applying for a position there and wasting government and personal time, effort and dollars. A “Spec Opp” would... more »

Within HHS-ACF, we have been able to reduce the amount of time we have spent with admin duties regarding the on/off boarding of employees, manage user accounts & contact information and reduce the amount of paperwork we deal with by 100% with the use of the ACF Contact List System (CLS).
Not only have we been able to reduce the time spent on administrative functions & paperwork but we have been able to control costs by... more »

Personal computers, laptops, and tablet PCs have dominated the workforce toolset within the Federal government up to the present day. The development of web-based content has traditionally been targeted at personal computing (PC) by Federal developers. The combination of these two factors has led to the workforce carrying expensive, bulky and sometimes fragile equipment as a necessary toolset into the field in order... more »

Issue: Break in service to Agency / due to delay in approval

Background:
There is more than anecdotal evidence that delays of re-upping Task Orders is due to:
- COTR Challenges
- Errors w/ Paperwork Submissions
- Budget Processing
- Agency Confirming need

Solution:
For existing contractors that have contracted with an agency, that are not complete with their support, the approval should be streamlined for additional... more »

Digital Signatures, Use by the smaller agencies

Digital signatures will save a lot of printing for both the agencies and their grantees/ contractors. Also documents should be archived AND searchable. This increases transparency of government and financial activities.

Bigger agencies have staff knowledgeable about this issue; please help the legal offices in the smaller agencies resolve this issue.

Digital signature... more »

Have a person with whatever agency they are dealing with (in my case Social Security) sign or attest a statement that they have read and understand the Paperwork Reduction Act Statement. Fax this signed statement into the folder or document that the person attested to understanding this document. This would prevent us from having to waste paper to state we are saving paper. We can also add that they can request and... more »

Thousands of crewmembers are processed by Customs and Border Protection Officers in extremely busy airports with numbers that range as  high as 41 million passengers (including as much as 8 million international passengers) in Atlanta's Hartfield Jackson International Airport (US busiest airport) to average 29 million passengers a year including 9 million international passengers every year in over 20 airports around... more »