Mr Richards on technology, information, and people

OMB sent out a memo encouraging federal agencies to conduct contests to spur innovation. Think the X-Prize for commercial spaceflight or the 2005 contest for a Space Elevator.

What's interesting - to anyone sufficiently geeky to get excited about procurement authority- is section E. Section E explicitly states that agencies can "conduct a procurement in a contest-like manner to encourage greater innovation and private sector participation, when the payment of a prize is for a good or service for the benefit of the government." This agency would then use existing procurement authority to pay out the prize.

It is a common problem, in my mind, that federal agencies are discouraged from not completely exhausting their budget in a given year. Any budget you don't spend, you lose. It is almost diametrically opposed to what would occur in the private sector - where savings are looked kindly upon and can lead to performance bonuses for the savers.

Agencies end up blowing money on inconsequential items or services, whereas here, you have OMB providing a terrific alternative. How about a year-end contest(s) where all budget saved is turned into contest money? You might even encourage an agency to save procurement authority by running their business more efficiently during the course of the year, so that it can turn around and funnel it into innovation contests at year-end. Win-win!

Labels: budgeting, gov 2.0