DED cuts operation costs by $557,000

In a quarterly review of its operations, the department identified $557,000 in cost reductions for the fiscal year that began July 1.

The department’s Public Service Commission made the largest cutback at $260,000. The commission began using internal resources instead of a private contractor to develop a disaster recovery plan for its Electronic Filing and Information System. The system is the commission’s docket, tariff and consumer management tool.

The Missouri Arts Council also accounted for a significant part of the savings, $150,000, by reducing its senior staff from four to two.

The Missouri Division of Tourism identified $70,000 in savings by consolidating its process for collecting information for the Missouri Vacation Planner. About $12,000 was saved by placing its marketing plan online instead of providing paper copies, and $1,200 was saved in additional marketing plan changes.

The department’s Finance division cut costs by $24,000 by being more efficient in computers and software purchases, and new software upgrades within the department will save another $10,000.

The Office of Public Counsel saved $2,500 by switching its computer service from Westlaw to Lexis/Nexis and $5,000 by eliminating the most expensive periodical subscriptions.

The Division of Professional Registration identified savings of $15,000 in August alone by billing technical services on an hourly rate, and the Division of Credit Unions saved $4,200 by handling reports processing from the Jefferson City Office.

Mailing costs for the department were reduced by more than $18,000 through a new mail service agreement with the University of Missouri.