3 votes
Federal Law Enforcement Officers should need to pass a bi-annual physical fitness test. If they carry a gun, they should also be able to walk up a flight of stairs.
Physically fit law enforcement agencies/departments could save the Fed Gov lots of money.
9 votes
Over the years I have seen contractor overhead rates range from 8% to over 200%. In that respect, a couple of years ago, DoD came out with an initiative that capped Academic Grants Overhead rates at 40%. With that in mind, I do not understand why this standard cannot be placed across all of the government contracts. This would force government contractors to be more leaner and lower the overall cost to the government. ...more »
Over the years I have seen contractor overhead rates range from 8% to over 200%. In that respect, a couple of years ago, DoD came out with an initiative that capped Academic Grants Overhead rates at 40%. With that in mind, I do not understand why this standard cannot be placed across all of the government contracts. This would force government contractors to be more leaner and lower the overall cost to the government. Also, this would ease the down time that is created when awaiting a Defense Contracting Audit Agency (DCAA) overhead rate audit at the beginning or end of a contract. This would speed up award times and closeout times. By speeding up closeout times, the government would spend less time tracking outstanding unexpended funds and in some case allow them to reallocate those funds to another project. By freeing up DCAA, they would be able to spend more time analyzing labor rates and perform other auditing functions to ensure no fraud, waste or abuse was happening.
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11 votes
Suggest that all supervisors work as front line staff for one week every quarter - total 4 weeks a month. This would provide supervisor with recent experience of front line staff work environment and can relate to staff better. This would also save four weeks worth of salary (save money).
7 votes
Contracts need to be standardized across all the services. They need to be electronic and searchable using a prepared template of criteria which can be tailored to your specific needs. This will reduce time spent reviewing multiple pages because all the contracts are different.
3 votes
Quality Assurance Reps in my location have enough to do without taking valuable time to supply data for reports to upper management. QAR's can use databases that will do that function with no time sacrificed by QAR's and all management has to do is know how to pull a report. This would be a major step forward for this Agency. We need test the databases first! Then decide as a group on which is best.
10 votes
Some of the National Weather Service engineering, regarding weather radar in particular, is done at Norman, OKlahoma in coordination with the FAA and the US Air Force. Some engineering is accomplished at a main engineering facility in Silver Spring, MD.. Still other engineering is accomplished at the 6 regional headquarters offices and here and there and everywhere. The National Weather Service Logistics Center is located ...more »
Some of the National Weather Service engineering, regarding weather radar in particular, is done at Norman, OKlahoma in coordination with the FAA and the US Air Force. Some engineering is accomplished at a main engineering facility in Silver Spring, MD.. Still other engineering is accomplished at the 6 regional headquarters offices and here and there and everywhere. The National Weather Service Logistics Center is located in Kansas City, MO. The National Weather Service, National Repair Center (NRC) is located in Kansas City, MO. The National Weather Service Training Center is located in Kansas City, MO. The Severe Storms Center is located in Kansas City, MO. The Central Region Headquarters is located in Kansas City, MO. When you think of where you could consolidate engineering services, Kansas City, MO comes to mind. It's not rocket science: if you have a highly-fractured engineering service, it's gonna probably be more ineffective and inefficient than it could be. I believe if NWS Engineering Services were to consolidate in KC, MO it would save millions and make our engineering services more, "productive".
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14 votes
One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians. This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated ...more »
One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians.
This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated accordingly and steps can be added or removed.
1- Spread the furlough to Government employees and military to only one DAY (a day off without pay) but distributing the load to different employees at different time frame (not all at the same time.)
2- Starting from the President down to the Vice-President, Congressman, Senate everybody would received a day off without pay.
3- On the other hand, the same for all Military branches, starting from the top down, one day off without pay for generals, commanders, officers, and enlisted. Everyone will take it but not at the same time.
4- PAY Roll has to be set up to accommodate for this day off ensuring the day is not pay accordingly to the proposal. And not like few years ago when EVERYONE was off and EVERYONE still received payment for the days off. A nice free vacation with payment included.
5- We all need to remember, even if the president does not receive pay for one day, he is still the president with decision to make on HIS DAY OFF. And same thing with every military commander, pretty much they all giving a day off without pay but their executive officer or next in the change of command will be incharged.
6- There is always a backup plan when 25 or 50% of an outfit organization is off duty, the other 50% takes over and performs the function of the office. As the norm when a supervisor is off the next level supervisor takes charge until current supervisor comes back.
7- Do this for one year, equally shared to all branches of the government and military. Analyze the cost saving and if it works and does not hurt anyone, make it a proposal and mandate to future years.
8- This also can be implemented to States Government hierarchy.
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33 votes
Why do the taxpayers have to pay for POLITICAL primaries? We should not have to pay for anything political. I have no problem paying for an election but put everyone on the ballot. If a party wants to narrow the field let them pay for it.
38 votes
http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm -section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income ...more »
http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm -section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income housing system is a complete failure which has drained the US economy of trillions of dollars and maintained tenets in social and financial bondage. there is no incentive to leave section 8 or low income housing. why work or attend college when you can get housing for free or low cost. This encouranges drug abuse and out of wedlock births and tenet abuse by housing squatters and unauthorized people living in the units. section 8 and low income housing also reduce local taxpayers home values and create blighted neighborhoods with loud music and cars with dark windows and dirty messy yards often with dirt as a yard.. SECTION 8 and LOW INCOME HOUSING TENETS NEED TIME LIMITS of 1 to 3 years then they must be evicted from the units since they are living on free enititlements and have no incentive to Raise themselves out of the free benefits. WAKE UP AMERICA! WE ARE TRILLIONS IN DEBT and giving away FREE BENEFITS . remember that all secion 8 and low income housing authoritys are TAX FREE and you pay the costs of educating the people and their rents are susidized and food and insurance are subsidized and paid for. its like the midlle and upper class is paying triple to live, we all have to pay for everyone else.. its not fair..http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm
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11 votes
The main efficiency problem of the federal government is detachment, or the not-my-job mindset. If you really want to see a fast, efficient federal work force, get everyone in the department to start communicating and working together on everything regardless of title or seniority. In every department there is someone slacking off and someone over tasked, and those roles may change over time due to the chunkiness of our ...more »
The main efficiency problem of the federal government is detachment, or the not-my-job mindset. If you really want to see a fast, efficient federal work force, get everyone in the department to start communicating and working together on everything regardless of title or seniority. In every department there is someone slacking off and someone over tasked, and those roles may change over time due to the chunkiness of our work (that is to say the workload is intermittent and an individual's workload varies from day to day or week to week). This chunkiness is an inherent feature of qualitative work, and overcoming the problem requires providing an incentive to finish all projects, regardless of size and scope, as efficiently and quickly as possible.
My recommendation to achieve this without massive processes or oversight is to motivate and empower the employees to do it themselves. For example, you could give the option to all branches, departments, groups, etc, to work a 7 hour day instead of an 8 hour day with full pay. Then you make a couple of additional rules:
1. You must be able to show everyone in your group how your work could be finished in a 7 hour day. Meaning they know what you are doing and could do it themselves if need be.
2. Nobody leaves unless everyone in the group can leave, including supervisors. This means those that have nothing to do at the moment have to help others in order to leave early and nobody can hold on to task, working on one project too long to keep themselves busy or rake in the over time.
My point is this, trying to create some universal rule or process is not going to solve our efficiency problems. You have employed 2.15 million people, these people are smart enough to assess their situation and make improvements that work for their specific situation. However we are hindered by coworkers who don’t care, are too busy, or tried it before and gave up. We need some kind of unifying goal that is going to make us work as a team. If you were to implement this change I think you would see a radical improvement in the productivity, efficiency and work culture of the Government/DoD.
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9 votes
Many Military Technician (Federal Civil Service) “lower graded” jobs experience a high turnover rate. This high turnover increases training costs and reduces the organization’s productivity and continuity of operation. The main cause of turnover is due to the incumbent being hired to a greater paying position within the organization. I suggest removing the “Dual-Status” designation for these positions (mainly WG-05 through ...more »
Many Military Technician (Federal Civil Service) “lower graded” jobs experience a high turnover rate. This high turnover increases training costs and reduces the organization’s productivity and continuity of operation.
The main cause of turnover is due to the incumbent being hired to a greater paying position within the organization.
I suggest removing the “Dual-Status” designation for these positions (mainly WG-05 through WG-07, GS-05 ), such as supply clerks, production controllers (in the equipment maintenance arena) to allow for dedicated civilians to apply for these positions. With a minimal amount of training, these positions can be filled by “off-the-street” civilians (with proper background checks, etc) who would not constantly be looking at higher graded positions within the system (since the other positions are all “Dual-Status” ).
This will also provide for essential continuity when “Dual-Status” employees from the organization are deployed, away on military training, etc.
Related Post:
http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/120084-13060
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21 votes
Inmates will complain to your face about how disgusting food is in the prison chow hall but yet when your down there they go back in line for a second and third helping. A way to cut costs is to have the inmates use their id's and scan them when they go through the chow line. The list will refresh for every meal and once youve gone through the first time thats it, saving taxpayers thousands. We already have food service ...more »
Inmates will complain to your face about how disgusting food is in the prison chow hall but yet when your down there they go back in line for a second and third helping. A way to cut costs is to have the inmates use their id's and scan them when they go through the chow line. The list will refresh for every meal and once youve gone through the first time thats it, saving taxpayers thousands. We already have food service staff standing in line making sure portion control and lack of contraband being passed along. Why not have them check id's after they have been scanned to make sure they are the same person whos on the card? It would be added security for the system and it will keep the inmates accountable.
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12 votes
Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed. The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers. For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, ...more »
Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed.
The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers.
For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, this is approximately 100,000 per year for a total of 5 years. This is assuming the offices print 8350 pages per months. The printer even could last longer that the specified life spam stated by the manufacture. Parts can be replaced, and if the cost of repair exceed 40% of the cost of the printer, then it would not be economical to repair.
On another note, on today’s economy saving there is no need to print as mush as in the way we used to 5 or 10 years ago.
Save energy, do less waste, go paperless and save tax payers money
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24 votes
Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online. Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services. There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; ...more »
Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online.
Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services.
There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; here is the amount an employee can print every 2 weeks:
1- One copy for the employee,
2- Make another copy for the supervisor
3- And then another for the Admin or budget person to verify the entries.
4- If there is one error the cycle starts again, and you end up 2 or 3 time the initial amout printed originally.
ONE PERSON could generate 12 sheets or more just for each pay period (this assuming there is no mistake and the forms need to be printed again).... you can do the numbers, if you have 1000's employees.
Save more,,,,do less waste... Lets go paperless….
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15 votes
With few exceptions, each CSRS retiree has unused sick leave that cannot be applied to his/her retirement…left on the table. Unless the retiree designates what to do through a direct donation at time of retirement, make it mandatory that all sick leave not applied to the CSRS retiree or his designee will be pooled in an Agency account for equitable/as-needed distribution.
14 votes
Our taxes go to the pay of Supreme Court Justices. Our children need to see them in attendance at any State of the Union Address. Each justice must be present. This is Our Government made visible--to the entire nation and to the the world. The arrogance of three or four of the nine not in attendance is something that should not be tolerated. One justice said they were like bumps on a log. Well, that is one person's made-up ...more »
Our taxes go to the pay of Supreme Court Justices.
Our children need to see them in attendance at any State of the Union Address. Each justice must be present. This is Our Government made visible--to the entire nation and to the the world.
The arrogance of three or four of the nine not in attendance is something that should not be tolerated. One justice said they were like bumps on a log. Well, that is one person's made-up perception--change your perception. Remember that someone is in a foxhole, that person would wish to be a bump on a log. If SOTU addresses bore you, you shouldn't have taken the job. Arrogance of the first rank, you were given the job because we thought you could be bi-partisan. Obviously they are not going to police themselves on this issue. The American people must demand it.
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63 votes
A solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions. The cost of a gas powered mower is around 3 to 4 times what a manual ...more »
A solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions. The cost of a gas powered mower is around 3 to 4 times what a manual push mower would cost. Also, the maintenance for a manual push mower is 10% of maintaining a gas powered mower.
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40 votes
With the growing number of FERS employees retiring or becoming eligible to retire, a system for checks and balances needs to be addressed to ensure retirees begin receiving their full entitlements within the first six months of retirement. This would limit the need for retirees to seek new employment and/or outside help.
14 votes
Equipment CONSOLIDATION and Re-UTILIZATION First come first served. Someone’s trash or excess is someone’s treasure (items needed for another office / or site.) We need to start sharing our knowledge of what we have in excess and what we can donate, exchange, or give away; this could be done within the organization we all resides / or working with…. 1- Each department can provide an equipment list of excess, unused ...more »
Equipment CONSOLIDATION and Re-UTILIZATION First come first served.
Someone’s trash or excess is someone’s treasure (items needed for another office / or site.)
We need to start sharing our knowledge of what we have in excess and what we can donate, exchange, or give away; this could be done within the organization we all resides / or working with….
1- Each department can provide an equipment list of excess, unused or not desire equipment.
2- This list can be consolidated as a good faith estimate for property disposal - but not to be disposed of as scrap or as unserviceable items to your local supply or DRMO (Demilitarized Reutilization Marketing Office) or via disposition under form SF120, or disposal of to “Area 51.”
3- Have 2 Goods-Assets Offices (a logistics office or a Central point of distribution):
a- a Non-Information Technology (IT) or Office Furniture -- Have an office to store or coordinate the excess of furniture equipment - for utilization whiting the Agency; and after 6 or 12 moths the equipment can go on a SF120 for other agencies to take advantage.
b- An Information Technology Equipment -- Have an Office in charge of reporting all of the excess Information Technology Equipment. There is so many unopened or boxed up electronic equipment, cables, parts, magnetic media, ect out there that it can be realigned.
Example 1 --- Maybe someone has a piece of switch / router equipment, or let said a Printer or keyboard, for example it could be transferred to someone in needs of printers or networking communication equipment. And this could start within the office Organization. The cost related to this scenario; as stated before someone needs a $25,000 or $65,000 Cisco 4600 Switch with 192 Giga-Ethernet ports and fiber ports. The equipment could be transferred to the office needing the upgrade without the need of spending almost $80,000 on Switches and this kind of sort of equipment.
Example 2 --- Someone is conducting a program and there is a project of changing cables on the switches and converting this old Cat5 to Cat6 cabling, because the new technology is booming and the office is going to have Voice-over-IP technology. There was an office down the street that has excess of Cat6 cables and connectors sitting in a corner for the last 2 years. The IT Office Reutilization tapped and has the knowledge of this equipment, and then the Cable could be transferred to the NEW Project office for optimizing the network with Voice-over-IP system. The cost scenario here, someone needs 300 patch cables at approximately $15.00 a piece. The total here is $4,500 in just cables (upgrading the infrastructure to CAT6 only.)
Remember some of this part can last a long time; cables, parts, magnetic media (usually this magnetic storage media is good for 30 or 40 years.)
The question is: How many of you have some of them, knowingly that someone could benefit from it.
see other ideas here:
http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Wind-turbine-and-Solar-Panels/122931-13060
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9 votes
I normally consider the U.S. Senate to be the adults in the room. Average age is 60.4 (109th ? Congress) and just a few months ago, 1 Senator was in his 90s; and 5 re in their 80s, 19 are in their 70s, 36 are in their 60s, 29 are in their 50s, and 10 are in their 40s. Today there is a significantly larger and more diverse U.S. population and there are too many technological issues to be dealt with. And there seems ...more »
I normally consider the U.S. Senate to be the adults in the room. Average age is 60.4 (109th ? Congress) and just a few months ago, 1 Senator was in his 90s; and 5 re in their 80s, 19 are in their 70s, 36 are in their 60s, 29 are in their 50s, and 10 are in their 40s. Today there is a significantly larger and more diverse U.S. population and there are too many technological issues to be dealt with. And there seems to be too much power by unelected staff members, so don’t increase staff numbers, just split existing staff numbers with new senators. Would cause the majority to change and all that (2/3rds would be 100 vice 67, etc., etc.), but nothing else needs to change but the quantity. All other terms and conditions of the Constitution, etc., etc., would be modified with the new number after a constitutional amendment.
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11 votes
It is time to quit burying our trash. Generate electricity similar to tire-derived fuel. Stack scrubbers are sophisticated and efficient enough today in pollutant recovery for that to not be an issue.
14 votes
$25k tops is not enough of a retirement incentive to retire as a USG senior employee. For the first half of the incentive, consider paying a certain amount of tax-free cash at upwards of $50k with $25k the floor for all eligible, and issue U.S. Government Savings Bonds at a matching dollar rate for the other half of the incentive package. Would create immediate head-space across all USG levels. Rules would include ...more »
$25k tops is not enough of a retirement incentive to retire as a USG senior employee. For the first half of the incentive, consider paying a certain amount of tax-free cash at upwards of $50k with $25k the floor for all eligible, and issue U.S. Government Savings Bonds at a matching dollar rate for the other half of the incentive package. Would create immediate head-space across all USG levels. Rules would include that retirement must occur within 1st quarter of any new FY to allow maximum recovery of salary/benefits for remainder of the FY. The agency has already received the money for a full FY…a win-win.
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19 votes
All will be surprised how much savings (and equity) can be brought when a little light is shined through mandatory, intra-agency, by-name posting/notification on all awards, promotions, bonuses, incentives, etc., etc., financial and otherwise, on at least a quarterly basis.
16 votes
Place all USG agencies on a five-year budgeting cycle similar to DOD. Strategic vision would be the new mantra across the USG.
7 votes
Make all FY appropriations (O&M) non-year with same rules as for R&D/RDT&E, and Procurement in that residual funds may only be used for prior year starts/activities/over-runs, etc., unless exchanged on a dollar-for-dollar basis for new, current year appropriations of similar type. No different than re-coloring appropriations in bundles that goes on today.
