SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

By having plain but professional templates for briefings and fact sheets, millions of dollars in ink would be saved. Some templates that are used are extremely intricate with lots of images and color. While this is aesthetically pleasing, it is not fiscally responsible as it is very costly to print the sometimes hundreds of copies that are used and passed out at meetings and conferences.

While great strides have been made recently to get more folks to file online (which substantially reduces labor costs for the government), there's no reason why the remaining paper filings (of which there will always be some) couldn't be digitized by lockbox banks (or the Federal Reserve) servicing the IRS. Since these banks are already processing remittances for deposit, why not have them digitize filings so that they... more »

Federal buldings and Post Offices would be great places for the public to pick up government forms and publications, even if the agency they are looking for is not resident. A kiosk that can print forms on demand similar to a Redbox dvd vendor would do the job. Such a machince could be used to collect fees as well.

Forms, forms, forms, forms. The government loves them. By the end of my work week I've filled out at least one form, but sometimes as many as 10. They are all required to be printed and signed.

What a waste...not only in paper and time, but also in rework when forms are lost, scanning, and interruptions for those who must physically sign. Agencies already have the software needed to do this electronically with minimal... more »

Often times there is a long delay in processing forms. If a new form is issued prior to the acceptance of the information submitted on an old form, it requires the submission of the same data on a new form. This duplicates efforts both on the person/entity submitting the form and the receiving agency who is processing these forms.
Also, if forms get lost, people/entities are required to resubmit the form. It is difficult... more »

Many government forms have instruction pages that are longer than the actual form. If there are that many instructions required, then the form is not understandable and should be revised or not used at all. And if there are that many instructions, the people who have to complete the forms are probably more confused by the instructions than the forms. Also, it is a huge waste of paper to have such long forms and instructions.... more »

Eliminate all use of paper forms by the government, require all government transactions to be conducted electronically. Pay the Postal Service to set up kiosks in their lobbies for use by people who don't have home computers.

Our Public contact team takes a lot of calls for forms. Despite being available online, many veterans either don't have access or aren't sure what forms they are looking for, so they call our hotline for them. Public contact writes down their name and address, or makes prints of the address from online, then manually send out the forms to the veterans at the end of the day. When I worked at INS they had a program where... more »

Mandate that all government documents be signed electronically to reduce the need for paper copies of forms.