FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
January 24, 1997RR-1463
The Treasury Department and ten of its bureaustoday received 26 Hammer Awards from the National PerformanceReview in recognition of efforts to make government work betterfor less by putting customers first, cutting red tape, empoweringemployees and getting back to basics.
"Reinventinggovernment is not an abstract exercise," Treasury SecretaryRobert E. Rubin said. "It goes to the heart and soul ofdoing our mission more effectively at Treasury -- and it goes tothe heart and soul of using government to make a difference inpeople’s lives, by achieving results that get guns off ourstreets, catch drug smugglers and make our country and oureconomy stronger."
Present to honor awardees were Secretary Rubin,National Performance Review Director Bob Stone and other seniorTreasury and bureau officials. 26 reinvention teams representingthe efforts of more than 500 Treasury employees received Hammerawards. A description of each of the award winning teams isattached.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUREAUS RECEIVING HAMMER AWARDS
U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE
Drawback Regulations Team - What Customs,Treasury, and industry representatives could not resolve over athree and one-half year period (since 1992) was accomplished inabout six months using interest-based problem-solving to reach aconsensus on the recommended changes; their proposal has beenpresented to trade groups around the country to gain support forthe regulatory package.
Contact: Janine Jones, 202-927-0398, Washington,D.C.
Office of Investigations - This office hasreinvented every aspect of the way it does business over the pastthree years, resulting in arrests increasing by 26.3%,indictments by 18.8%, convictions by 22.8%, overall seizures by41.8%, narcotic seizures by 33.7%, and financial seizures (moneylaundering) by an astounding 73.9% (totaling $586 million).
Contact: Janine Jones, 202-927-0398, Washington,D.C.
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Notices Reengineering Team - Identifiedways to reduce taxpayer burden by eliminating non-value-addednotices. The team recommended the elimination of 50 differentnotices that will result in a direct cost savings ofapproximately $20.5 million when fully implemented.
Contact: Frank Keith, 202-622-4010, Washington,D.C.
Indiana District’s resource center forsmall business & non-profit assistance - IRS and theQuality for Indiana Taxpayers, Inc., established the ResourceCenter for Business and Non-Profit Assistance. The Center is apublic/private partnership that gives new business owners aone-stop service for answers and referrals on business concerns.This idea is a model of efficiency and cost savings that can bereplicated nationwide.
Contact: Carolyn Stumps, 317-226-6034,Indianapolis, Indiana.
Collection Notice Redesign Project Team - Sixcollection notices were redesigned into a single page formatwhich cut costs by $1.75 million, reduced taxpayer burden, andimproved customer service.
Contact: Gerri Servalli, 215-516-2483,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE
Elimination of Imprest Funds in the FederalGovernment through the Use of Electronic Commerce - AReinvention Lab was developed to "Eliminate Imprest Fundsthrough Electronic Commerce" in the Federal government. Therecommendation of the lab was that most Imprest Funds in theFederal Government could be closed, saving the government over$300 million in operating cost while improving operations andreducing employee "hassle" in getting reimbursed.
Contact: Sherman Eisner, 202-874-8354,Washington, D.C.
ASAP Team -This team provided the Federalgovernment with an improved automated technological process forcollection of financial information. With few resources, the teamforged ahead to complete the project within its time frame andunder budget.
Contact: Bill Lehmuth, 202-874-7115, Washington,D.C.
UTF Implementation Team - This teamimplemented the new UHF accounting system on schedule and withinbudget. Federal and state governments will be able to processdata more effectively with reduced resource levels, therebyrealizing future savings.
Contact: Ken Semler, 202-874-9624, Washington,D.C.
Debt Management Services - The Federalgovernment’s delinquent, non-tax debt is over $51 billion.The Department of the Treasury and Federal program agencies, theDebt Management Services staff ed the effort to"reinvent" debt collection Government -wide. The endresult of their effort was legislation that: 1) centralizes debtcollection functions; 2) establishes procedures to withholdGovernment payments to collect on delinquent debts; and 3)provides agencies access to additional tools to make their debtcollection efforts a success.
Contact: Vicki McDowell, 202-874-6660,Washington, D.C.
Mandatory Electronic Funds Transfer - TheU. S Treasury makes over 800 million payments annually.Approximately 53% of these payments are made by electronic fundstransfer(EFT) while the remainder are made by check. With fullconversion to EFT for all payments, the Government would achieveover $450 million in savings and achieve better service for itsrecipients.
Contact: Bettsy Lane, 202-874-6530, Washington,D.C.
Austin Regional Finance Center - ARFC hasmoved towards an integrated approach to business. The customerservice, operations, and administrative functions are matrixedfor a complete solution to customers’ needs.
Contact: Gordon Highams, 512-342-7200, Austin,Texas.
"A" Team - Through reduction ofwork steps, transition to mainframe property management systems,and innovative uses of electronic commerce, the "A"Team has tallied a total reduction in staff of 19.6%, and over$66,000.00 in salary expenditures.
Contact: John Adams, 913-236-3305, Kansas City,Kansas.
Electronic Data Interchange Procurement PilotTeam -
The Financial Management Service developed andimplemented pilot EC system for small purchases. In addition, FMSpersonnel were trained to assist other agencies implementing ECinto their small purchases process.
Contact: Frank Kesterman, 202-874-6650,Washington, D.C.
FACTS Team - The Federal Agencies’Centralized Trial Balance System (FACTS) team developed andimplemented a streamlined method for Federal agencies to submittheir financial data to Treasury electronically, which simplifiesthe financial reporting process while complying with uniformreporting standards.
Contact: Holden Hogue, 202-874-8987, Washington,D.C.
U.S. MINT
Olympic Task Force - To date sales of U.S.Commemorative Coins have generated $103 million in revenues forthe Treasury; $25 million of the monies generated at no cost tothe taxpayer will go to the United States Olympic Committee andthe United States Olympic Team.
Contact: Lynn Parish, 202-874-6345, Washington,D.C.
U.S. Mint International Division - Reinventedthe process of International distribution and marketing of theU.S. Mint commemorative coins and other products, which increasedsales by 200 percent over the previous internationalcommemorative coin program in 1994.
Contact: Lynn Parish, 202-874-6345, Washington,D.C.
OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY
Ombudsman’s Appeal Process Team - OCCappointed an Ombudsman to provide national banks an additionalapproach to appeal OCC decisions. Since inception, the Ombudsmanhas decided 51 formal appeals, upholding banks in 60 percent ofthe cases. Additionally, OCC has handled 146 inquiries throughalternative dispute resolution. As a direct result of theOCC’s Ombudsman appeals process, Congress has mandated thatall federal financial regulatory agencies establish an Ombudsmanfunction.
Samuel Golden, 713-650-0475, Houston, Texas.
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS
Ceasefire Program Team - In concert with anational enforcement strategy to help state and local lawenforcement solve firearms related violent crimes, this programhas significantly improved the effectiveness of law enforcementwithout increasing the expense of personnel.
Robin Dessler, 202-927-8654, Washington, D.C.
Out of business records management team -Converted 60 million paper documents to microfilm records within18 months at a cost of only $4.2 million after receivingestimates from private contractors that the work would take 28years to complete at a cost of $50 million.
Contact: Robin Dessler, 202-927-8654, Washington,D.C.
Partnership Formula Approval Process Team- A joint government/industry effort developed procedures andsoftware that significantly reduced costs and processing time forboth the government and industry, eliminating major andtime-consuming steps from the ATF approval process.
Contact: Robin Dessler, 202-927-8654, Washington,D.C.
Project lead team - In partnership withNortheastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, developed acomputer process to analyze traced gun crime data that identifiescriminal firearm traffickers and associates. In the first sixmonths of field use, ATF recommended 977 defendants forprosecution. The defendants were responsible for havingtrafficked more than 21,655 firearms, of which more than 1,800had traced through the National Tracing Center and recoveredafter use in a crime.
Contact: Robin Dessler, 202-927-8654, Washington,D.C.
OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION
Regulatory Review Team - Reviewed,revised, and updated all OTS regulations governing the thriftindustry. The Team’s work resulted in revisions that strikea balance between increasing the flexibility of thriftinstitutions to compete in an ever-changing marketplace andmaintaining adequate safety and soundness guidance to protectdepositors and taxpayers.
Contact: John Price, 202-906-6000, Washington,D.C.
Application Processing Team - SecurityFirst Network Bank, FSB notified the Office of Thrift Supervisionof its intent to file an application to offer comprehensivebanking services via the Internet. An OTS team of bothHeadquarters and Regional staff worked diligently with SecurityFirst’s management to overcome the many new and unexploredregulatory, technical, accounting, and legal obstacles. Theirefforts resulted in the chartering of the first"on-line" bank in the U.S.
Contact: Diana Garmus, 202-906-6000, Washington,D.C.
UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE
Forensic Services Division - FSDestablished a partnership with the Center for Missing andExploited Children in 1995. This partnership has increased thearrests of or exoneration of many individuals, created a state ofthe art pedophile handwriting database for investigative use, andprovided age progression drawings of missing children from as faraway as Moscow, Russia.
Contact: Terry Samway, 202-435-5708, Washington,D.C.
BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING
Mutilated Currency TEAM - In 1996processed 20,000 cases of currency mutilated by naturaldisasters, fire, water or other elements that resulted inredemption checks of more than $70 million for U.S. citizens. Apartnership with FEMA provided information to thousands ofnatural disaster victims and let them know how they could redeemdamaged currency.
Contact: Lorraine Robinson, 202-874-2532,Washington, D.C.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY & BUREAU OFPUBLIC DEBT
Reengineering State and Local GovernmentSeries Program - The $100 billion SLUGS investment programwas reinvented. The redesign of the products and processes ofthis major financing program affecting thousands of governmententities, cut red tape, reduced costs, and improved customerservice,
Contact: Pete Hollenbach, 202-219-3302,Washington, D.C.