An administration effort to get agencies to find savings in areas such as printing, vehicle fleet and travel is paying office to the tune of $4 billion, OMB has said.
It said the “campaign to cut waste,” launched last fall with an executive order is behind $2 billion less in spending compared to the same period in September 2010, and that agencies saved $2 billion in the second quarter as well, edging the government closer to meeting a goal of $8 billion by the end of fiscal 2013.
OMB cited a USDA effort to consolidate its cell phone contract as an example of the kind of actions agencies are undertaking to spend less. It said the agency had over 700 plans and 36,000 lines of service, but eliminated 1,700 of them, saving $4.7 million this year.
The Air Force, in shifting from paper to a digital document sharing, collaboration and form intake process is saving tens of millions of dollars, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is saving on travel by using more teleconferencing and webinars, OMB said.
