The goal is to make the staff support easier. Department support for proposal development is strong. Tracking expenses is more a problem. Approvals Eliminate the need for all approvals. No one looks at the scientific merit of proposals.
Electronic approval is a second-best solution.
One PI doesn't use collaborators in other departments because it is too much trouble. The department chair needs to know what faculty are doing and that they haven't committed resources without permission. Deans want to know that they haven't put in space or match to be provided by that office without prior agreement. Since some PI's do submit proposals with matching requirements, so it will be better to improve the process than to eliminate it. Make a box on the GC-1 form to indicate whether or not review by chair or dean is necessary.