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Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Saved by “Going Paperless”
Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is responsible for managing and operating federal payment systems and disburses approximately 85 percent of all Federal payments. Major payments include: Social Security Benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Federal Pension Benefits, Veterans’ Compensation and Pension, Railroad Retirement Pensions, and tax refunds. In FY 2010, 82 percent of payments and associated information were settled electronically.
What is the Issue?
Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is responsible for managing and operating federal payment systems and disburses approximately 85 percent of all Federal payments. Major payments include: Social Security Benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Federal Pension Benefits, Veterans’ Compensation and Pension, Railroad Retirement Pensions, and tax refunds. In FY 2010, 82 percent of payments and associated information were settled electronically.
What was the Intervention?
As a part of its strategic plan, Treasury aimed to modernize the Federal government’s payment and collection systems, improving the efficiency of operations and allowing the Department to get money to beneficiaries and back into the economy faster than ever. For the FY 2012-2013 reporting period, Treasury created an Agency Priority Goal to increase electronic transactions with the public for the purposes of improving service, preventing fraud, and reducing costs.
How was Performance Management Useful?
By creating an Agency Priority Goal, Treasury raised visibility of the issue within the Department and designated a goal leader responsible for tracking and achieving results (the Fiscal Assistant Secretary). The goal leader indicated in interviews with GAO that using performance information to track progress helped achieve the goal. The APG mechanism also proved useful in raising the visibility of Treasury’s efforts to the public and other external stakeholders, which proved useful because a significant part of the goal leader’s work involved providing information to the public due to the impact of such a transition.
What was the Impact?
Treasury saved the American people approximately $500 million; paper benefit payments dropped from 131 million in 2010 to 39 million in 2013 (more than 70 percent). Treasury has continued to track this as an Annual Performance Report metric to ensure continued progress after the APG sunset: in FY 2016, paper benefits continued to decrease to fewer than 18 million.
