President Obama has challenged his cabinet to cut a collective 100 million dollars in the next 90 days. Agencies will be required to report back with their savings at the end of 90 days. Below are the cost cutting measures that State has begun to implement according to the White House. It looks like consolidation is the way forward for State and USAID. The first two items on the list below already total $6 million. What else would be on this list by at the end of 90 days?
Going Paperless – The Department of State's National Visa Center (NVC) will implement electronic correspondence for immigrant visa processing. NVC anticipates cost savings in the first year of implementation will be approximately $1 million.
Consolidation in Posts – Consolidation in over 30 posts over the last few years have enabled USAID and State to save an estimated $5 million annually. The Department plans to expand consolidation to the 30 missions in USAID and State that will not be co-located by FY 2010 for an additional $5 million of savings.
Contract Consolidation – In a number of areas – including cell phones, PDAs, office supplies, furniture and medical supplies – the Department is reducing costs by consolidating purchases under one vendor or a small number of vendors, thus taking advantage of volume discounts. With office supplies alone, the Department anticipates cost savings between 7 and 10 percent.
Excess Inventory – In the past six months, the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) has identified 15,000 obsolete items valued at $5 million from IRM’s inventory stock and has turned them in to the Department of Agriculture Centralized Excess Property Operation. This purge of equipment has freed up much needed warehouse space at a State Annex and will save tens of thousands of dollars in storage facility fees.
Read the whole thing here.
