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Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration

Social Security fosters transparency, participation, and collaboration in our programs and operations. We identify information of great use to the public and work across organizational boundaries within the agency to make the information available in readily accessible formats. We also facilitate and encourage the use of emerging collaborative technologies to foster broader citizen participation in government business.

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Reutilizing Excess Property

The agency’s policy requiring purchasers to first consider using excess Federal property is codified in chapter 6 of the Personal Property Management Handbook, Acquiring Excess Federal Personal Property as follows:

As good stewards of government property, the Social Security Administration promotes the reutilization of government property by making the agency’s excess personal property available to other Federal, state, and local agencies through the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Personal Property Management System (PPMS). The agency requires its purchasers to consider obtaining excess property from other agencies before purchasing new items. In accordance with GSA’s policy, all agency employees and contractors have access to view PPMS to evaluate Federal excess property. When a component identifies a need for property, staff should check PPMS to view available excess property. Agency staff should obtain excess property from other agencies as long as it’s more advantageous than purchasing new property based on factors such as age, condition, and cost to transport/repair. If excess property is found suitable to meet the agency’s mission, staff must work through their respective Custodial Officers (CO) to obtain the property from GSA. As a matter of policy, and in the interest of checks and balances, the agency only allows COs to acquire excess property on behalf of agency employees and contractors who need the excess property.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a process in which organizations, like the SSA, submit an open call for voluntary assistance from a large group of individuals for online, distributed problem solving. The SSA actively engages in public crowdsourcing which helps inform our future policy and service decisions. Below, you will find active crowdsourcing communities where you can share your ideas.

Ideascale:

The SSA periodically uses Ideascale to obtain public input about Social Security related topics.

Social Media:

SSA Plans and Reports