SAVE award finalists have online focus

The Obama administration unveiled the finalists for the president's SAVE Award on Monday, and three out of the four suggestions for how to save taxpayer dollars involve moving operations online.

Vice President Joe Biden and Office of Management and Budget acting director Jeffrey Zients announced the finalists for the second annual SAVE Award, which solicits ideas from federal employees on how to make the federal government operate more efficiently. Last year's contest resulted in 20 suggestions that eventually found their way into the 2011 budget.

"Knocking the way government works makes for an easy political talking point. What’s hard is actually changing the way it works, and we want your help to do just that," Biden said in a letter to feds on Monday. "Our budget gurus then went through every single idea with a fine-tooth comb to see what we were already doing, what needed a closer look, and which qualified as our four finalists."

This year the White House received more than 18,000 submissions and for the first time asked for federal workers' help in narrowing down the entries. After 164,000 votes were cast, the administration narrowed it down to four finalists and is allowing the public to vote for the winner.

Three of the ideas feature a strong Web component; the exception is a suggestion from a food inspector in Michigan who pointed out that food sample containers needn't be returned using express shipping, which costs significantly more. Another popular suggestion was having mine operators and contractors report quarterly coal production and worker hours online, an area receiving more scrutiny since the rescue of trapped Chilean miners last month.

A Bureau of Prisons employee in Wisconsin questioned the cost of printing and mailing out the Federal Register to 10,000 recipients every day when it is available online, while a Department of Homeland Security paralegal argued advertizing seized property online could move goods more quickly while saving money on advertising. 

Those interested can vote for their favorite suggestion online; the winner will get to travel to the White House to meet the president and present their idea in person.

"Make no mistake: the SAVE Award will not balance the budget. But cutting waste and restoring accountability for taxpayer dollars is important if the budget is in surplus or in deficit," Zients said.