A few years back, the Navy bought submersible phones for their carriers because, unlike regular phones, these phones would still work after they'd been dunked in water. Sounds smart, right? Think again! Each submersible phone costs about $500 compared to about $30 for a regular phone. At that rate, the Navy would have to lose 17 aircraft carriers to cover the cost difference of just one phone (And, if that happens, the Navy has a lot more to worry about than the cost of a few telephones!). So, the Navy smartened up and switched to common desk models costing about $30 each.

Less is More - The Federal Specifications for French Fries

If you think the influence of a document is proportional to its length, think again. A comparison of these influential and not-so-influential documents suggests otherwise:

A sprawling dairy farm at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland long outlived its original purpose. Why? Apparently because Congress was overly-attached to its own creation.

Congress created and stocked the dairy with cows during the early 1900s. The idea was that the facility would provide the Academy with its own milk supply after contaminated milk from a commercial producer caused a typhoid outbreak there. But, by the mid-1960s, improved processing techniques virtually eliminated the threat of disease from commercial milk. Moreover, the antiquated facility became increasingly expensive to run.

The Navy repeatedly sought Congressional approval to stop operating the dairy, but it wasn’t until 1997, when the price of the dairy’s milk exceeded supermarket prices by 30 cents per gallon, that Congress finally agreed. The Navy milked its last cow on August 8, 1998.

Purchasing Power - Government Procurement

Before the reinvention initiative, the typical Federal worker was not authorized to buy so much as a $4.00 stapler for the office. The government vested this purchasing power solely in a group of specialists trained to confront (and sometimes create) the mountains of paper-work government purchases involved. This policy wasted time and effort and even prevented Federal employees from taking advantage of cost-saving sales. When it came to buying computers, the process was even worse - so cumbersome, in fact, that by the time the computers arrived, they were obsolete.

Since 1993, however, thanks to recommendations from Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), Congress passed a series of laws to streamline Federal purchasing procedures. Now individual employees can buy things (up to $2,500) they need for their jobs, using bank credit cards. Federal workers can now shop around and buy quickly, saving the government time and money. (For more information on credit card acquisition, Federal employees should contact their agency Procurement Office.)

For more information, visit the NPR Internet site, or contact William Ryan at (202) 694-0075.

10/6/99

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