Introduce Incentives Across All Government Agencies

[smcmann (Sean McMann)]

One of the biggest conributors of waste in the Federal Government is the lack of any incentives commonly found in the private sector. Federal agency Directors should be incentivized to reduce waste and penalized if they do not. Performance metrics need to be introduced that are tied to cost reduction and efficiency. If an Agency Director reduces spending by “X”, then they are incentivized with an end of fiscal year bonus. If they miss the mark, they are penalized with a reduced budget in the following year and a freeze on their salary. The reason Federal employees (I was one) are so unmotivated to think and perform in innovative ways…is because there is absolutely no incentive to do so. So, they take up space and wait it out until retirement instead of striving to actually improve their impact in a measurable way. Putting an incentive program in place across agencies at least at the Director level would have a near immediate impact. They would uncover ways to do what they need to do with a fraction of the time, human resources and $ currently needed. Give them a tangible reason to join in the effort to make this government more efficient.