April 94

Vice President Gore Hits Home with HAMMER Award for VA Regional Office

You've heard the old song, 'If I had a hammer,'" began Vice President Al Gore in presenting the first National Performance Review (NPR) HAMMER Award to the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) New York City Regional Office for improving services to veterans. Following the recommendations of his own NPR report to improve the use of non-monetary awards, the Vice President specifically recognized outstanding reinvention efforts with this honorary award. He chose the hammer as a symbol of change because it "is symbolic of the way we are going to build a new government that works better and costs less." By presenting this award, the Vice President is also following the examples of successful organizations described by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in their book Reinventing Government. "Reward programs are used to honor high achievers in virtually every entrepreneurial organization we have encountered," state the authors.

VA's New York Regional Office, which administers benefits such as disability compensation, pension, education, and home loan guaranties, was honored because it achieved one of the primary goals of the NPR- improved customer service.

The Office established a prototype reinvention lab that revamped its claims processing. Self-directed teams are now responsible for a veteran's case from beginning to end, instead of individual specialists handling portions of a claim and never coming into contact with the veteran.

In honoring the New York Office, VA Secretary Jesse Brown said, "The reinvention laboratories we have created in New York, Baltimore and Milwaukee are testing grounds to help VA develop better methods for delivering benefits and services."