And the SAVE Award Goes to…

More than 48,000 of you have cast your votes, and the results are now in. The winner of the 2011 SAVE Award is Matthew Ritsko of Crofton, Maryland

Matthew is a Financial Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He noticed that when NASA employees purchase specialized tools and equipment for developing and building flight projects, many of these tools are not tracked once projects are complete – an oversight that results in the same tools being unnecessarily bought by other employees. To cut down on these wasteful repeat purchases, Matthew suggested creating a centralized tool repository – or “lending library” – where these tools can be stored, catalogued, and checked in and out by NASA employees.

Matthew’s idea garnered just over 19,000 votes – an impressive number that not only wins him this year’s SAVE Award, but also the chance to present his idea directly to President Obama in person at the White House.

For those of you who voted for one of the other three finalists, don’t worry. As in past years, each of the finalists’ ideas will be incorporated in the FY 2013 Budget, and all other SAVE Award submissions will be reviewed for potential inclusion.

Our sincere thanks to all those who took the time to submit ideas for this year’s SAVE Award. It shows that Federal employees are committed to improving the way the government does business, which is even more important during these tough budgetary times. So as we congratulate Matthew and this year’s SAVE Award finalists, we also recommit ourselves to following their example and working to deliver the American people the efficient, effective government they deserve.

Jeff Zients is the Deputy Director for Management and Chief Performance Officer.