The winner of the White House’s 2011 SAVE award, which is for the best idea to save money and cut waste based on a federal employee’s experience on the front lines, has pitched his idea for a tool lending library to the President.
Matthew Ritsko, of Crofton, Md., is a financial manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and observed that the specialized tools that are purchased for flight projects are not tracked and often can’t be located when a similar need arises. Ritsko proposed these tools go into a centralized tool repository where the tools can be stored, cataloged and borrowed.
According to the White House, other federal employees have contacted Ritsko and expressed interest in implementing similar ideas in their own agencies, and with the administration’s stamp of approval and pressure on agencies to get more out of tighter budgets through its campaign to cut waste, the idea could proliferate in various forms.