The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.

Simply put, reverse auctions are auctions that enable sellers to “bid down” prices for their goods and services. The use of reverse auctions has substantially increased since Wyld’s initial report in 2000, albeit at a slower pace than anticipated in the earlier study. This new report contains original research on the potential of reverse auctions as a government cost-saving tool that also saves time and increases transparency.

The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.

Managers play an important role in an organization; they implement policies from senior leadership and also carry concerns up the chain from staff to decision-makers. If managers and staff don’t see eye-to-eye on the key issues, then managers may be unable or unwilling to properly acknowledge and share staff concerns to leadership. Executives may be left unaware of what’s happening on the front lines, issuing policies that risk failure because they aren’t fully informed.

The federal government faces an estimated annual structural budget deficit of $500 billion –700 billion. Deficits of this magnitude represent a major threat to the economic health of the nation. A plan to reduce and eliminate this structural deficit is urgently needed.

Last week, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform made recommendations to our leaders that identify savings opportunities to reduce the national debt.  The opportunities target roughly the same time horizon as my report does and identifies nearly four times as much potential savings.

A slate of recent legislative initiatives at the national level represents the most expansive reform of food safety in the U.S. since the 1930s. Spurred, in part, by recent high-profile food contaminations, new legislation is now under consideration in Congress that not only gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greater regulatory powers over the nation’s food providers—but also dramatically alters the food safety landscape. Four separate bills have been introduced in this session of Congress.

The federal government, led by the Obama administration, state and local governments, nonprofits, and leading private sector companies all seek ways to harness the advantages of innovation. The challenges faced by government in this environment are not new—business and technology managers have long sought to optimize how information technology (IT) supports their mission at reduced overall cost. Today, however, radical advances in computing power offer an unprecedented opportunity to reshape information and service delivery for citizens, while also streamlining program operations.

This week, Debra Cammer Hines, our Vice President of Public Sector Consulting, shared her perspective on detailed approaches that will drive cost savings across the Federal government.  She outlined the potential savings realized if we:

The largest technology companies in the country believe that that the Federal government can save $1 trillion over the next ten years through the aggressive adoption of seven specific initiatives based on commercial best practices (see http://www.techceocouncil.org/