ABOUT THE SAVE AWARD

In 2009, President Obama called for "a process through which every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can save money and perform better." The President’s SAVE (Securing Americans’ Value and Efficiency) Award fulfilled this commitment by enabling Federal employees from across the government to submit their ideas for efficiencies and savings as part of the annual Budget process. Now in 2010, we are expanding the process so Federal employees can both submit ideas and vote on ideas submitted by others in a collaborative process.

The first-ever SAVE Award was launched on September 23, 2009. In just three weeks, OMB received more than 38,000 ideas on how to make government more efficient and effective. OMB staff assessed the ideas, passing back the most promising ones to agencies to include as part of their budget plans, specifically in the Terminations, Reductions, and Savings volume. OMB then narrowed the best ideas to a “final four.” The American people rated the “final four” via online voting which concluded December 10, 2009.

In addition, many of the larger, systemic reforms proposed are being studied and teed up for action by OMB senior staff. Already some of these proposals are quickly becoming reality. For example, the Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it is changing the default setting for its payroll statements from paper to electronic. This means employees will receive their regular payroll data electronically instead of getting stacks of paper earnings statements by mail. Similar successes are underway and will be announced shortly.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The goal of the SAVE Award is to produce ideas that will yield savings while also improving the way that government operates. As such, submissions will be judged according to the following criteria:

There are many ideas that we may already be implementing, please look over the common themes from 2009 to avoid duplication.

Please read the terms of service to help make the process as productive as possible.

Does the idea reduce costs in a way that is concrete and quantifiable?

Does the idea improve the way that government operates by:

• Improving the quality of output at lower costs; or
• Simplifying processes to reduce administrative burden; or
• Improving the speed of government operations to improve efficiency?

Does the idea have a tangible impact on citizens’ lives or environment?

Is there a clear and practical plan for implementing the idea?

Will it be possible to begin realizing savings immediately?

AWARD TIMELINE

July 8, 2010

SAVE Award launch

July 29, 2010

Deadline for submissions for SAVE Award 2010

September 2010

SAVE Award winner will be announced.

2009 SAVE AWARD WINNER

Nancy Fichtner, a Fiscal Program Support Clerk at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), has worked at the Colorado VA Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado for almost six years.

As is the case in most hospitals all across the country, medicine that is used in the hospital is not given to patients to be brought home; instead, it is thrown out. “Currently the inpatient medications such as ointments, inhalers, eye drops, and other bulk items are being disposed of upon patient discharge.” Nancy Fichtner proposed ending this waste and finding a way to allow this medicine to be used by those who need it.

VA has nearly completed Phase I of its plan to re-label and dispense certain inpatient medications for outpatient use. This is expected to save $2 million for 2011, and $14.5 million between 2010-2014.