SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Warfare is changing and we are currently acting like the British did during our Revolutionary war, claiming that the enemy is "cheating" by not playing by the same rules of engagement as we do. For this reason, we need to change the way we fight our enemies. One major step would be to merge the R&D and Logistics of all services into one DoD-level service. Then we can truly look at redundant systems, obsolete systems... more »

WE have A LOT of Carrier Strike Groups. If we reduced it by 2, that's $19 billion per year (NASA's entier budget) and we'd STILL have 9 left!

It is common practice to issue laptops and desktops to designated individuals, doubling the burden on OIT support staff (Both Help Desk, DSM) as well as Asset Management and the user to keep all the hardware/software current with system updates. Note: To maintain COOP readiness all computers must be up to date and ready for service with minimal intervention.
Beyond support there is a direct cost associated with having... more »

The Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was created to analyze, track, research, and reduce the effectivness of improved explosive devices (IED) to our soldiers in the field. This entire organization and it's sub-organizations are redundant to the existing intiatives that exist in agencies such as NGA, NSA, DIA, and the armed services which is often proven provide more IED analysis than JIEDDO itself. Let the armed... more »

Current agency personnel are required to track their time and attendance on two separate tracking systems: WebTA and and internal Excel spreadsheet that mimics WebTA. Both tracking systems provide the same accountability for time and attendance however, the WebTA system is the official tracking system used by agency.

On average it takes each employee approximately 30 minutes to complete both tracking forms. This does... more »

This is vague, but look at the drop down list below. Isn't that a little long and obscure? I mean, just read the whole list, or the one you have to pick from when signing up for this site. Holy cats!

Since 9/11, there has been an explosive growth in the number and size of intelligence agencies. Many are conducting redundant work, turf wars over maritime, ground, air and space. This results in a lot of wasteful spending and reduces the relevancy, expediency and value of the intelligence provided to those who need it.

I work at one of FEMA’s National Processing Service Centers. When I am indexing documents into individual registrations I see many of page 2 (sections C and D) of the Declaration of Continuing Need for Temporary Rental Assistance form that have no identifying information on them. The pages become separated from the recertification documentation the registrant sends in when the fax splitters split them incorrectly. The... more »

The KC135R Air Refueler is powered by General Electric F108 jet engines. This powerplant is known as a low-maintenance engine. Changing an engine is a rare occasion for us. Some hot spots (such as Al Udeid) have a higher ratio of changes, but when it comes to Guard, Reserve, and smaller Active Duty bases, it is very uncommon to change out an engine. In the four years we’ve had 135Rs at the 191st at Selfridge ANGB, we’ve... more »

My idea is to bring all executive branch police and security functions at federal properties under the administrative, budgetary and operational control of one federal agency, such as the Federal Protective Service.
Many federal agencies use 0083 series police officers and 0085 series security guards. To name just a few; All branches of the DoD, DIA, FBI, NIST, BIA, USPS, NPS, and the Dept of the Treasury. The department... more »

The Houston Office of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue has audit teams stationed at all the major oil companies performing audits on their royalty payments. For some reason people from other offices get sent here to conduct audits. Can you tell me how crazy that is. You have people who are there everyday doing the same work and we are paying per diem, hotel, and airplane tickets to for them to come down here... more »

I think that an intra-agency wiki would have significant benefits to government agencies and would help the government realize potential cost savings. A wiki would provide a central, organized repository for research and analysis, which would eliminate the tremendous amount of research duplication that occurs within government and encourage consistency in knowledge. For the DOE (which I support), I could imagine a small... more »

In our Department we use a single learning system for training. That is the good news! It's very cost effective. Now for the bad news! Some offices responsible for ensuring particular topics that are mandatory to be trained on continue to create their own training when there are adequate training modules already purchased for use through out the Department. In some cases this can cause a 400% increase in training creation!... more »

Problem: The underlying problem is lack of Technology Utilization. Technology exists on every Government computer with functionalities, features, capabilities, and tools that are not being utilized and therefore the return on investments in Technology is low. Most end-users of technology are not technology experts and therefore do not realize the full capabilities in order to perform their functions efficiently with the... more »