U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications
NEWS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE: | December 14, 1995 | CONTACT: | Tom DeRocco (202) 208-3983 Michael Baugher (303) 231-3162 |
MMS GETS "HAMMERED" BY VICE-PRESIDENT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
The Department of the Interior's Minerals
Management Service (MMS) will receive Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award for pioneering
work writing regulations in plain English, leading to much improved customer service,
agency officials announced today.
The Hammer Award is the Vice President's answer
to the $600 hammer of yesterday's government and, fittingly, consists of a framed $6.00
hammer, ribbon and a notecard from Vice President Gore. The award is given in recognition
of worker teams that exemplify the four principles of President Clinton's National
Performance Review (NPR):
* put customers first;
* cut red tape;
* empower employees; and,
* get back to basics.
"MMS's Using Plain English Team developed
clear, easy-to-read and understand regulations, and demonstrated for
agencies throughout government how to write regulations that make government work better
for people," said NPR Project Manager Robert Stone.
Stone, who will present the award in ceremonies
in Denver on Wednesday, December 19, said that MMS's plain English regulations also make
it easier for customers to comply; reduce potential for mistakes and misunderstanding;
lessen customer frustration; reduce the need for customers to seek clarification; and
increase customers' trust and confidence in their government. "I'm immensely proud of
our staff, their commitment to quality and their response to the President's challenge to
make government work better for its citizens," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman.
"MMS employees recognize that poorly written regulations impose a burden on our
customers of having to guess what government wants or requires, and they are working to
eliminate the guesswork."
The MMS effort was so successful that the
contractor retained by the Department of the Interior to train its staff on
plain-English writing, now includes MMS work products among the models in a recently
published handbook, Readable Regulations: Eleven Models.
The National Park Service, General Services
Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Veterans Health
Administration will also receive the award for their NPR accomplishments.
MMS is the federal agency that manages the
Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the OCS, and collects,accounts
for and disburses about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore federal mineral leases
and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.
EDITORS NOTE:
1) Date/Time/Location: 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, December 19, 1995,
at the Veterans
Benefits Administration, Regional Office
(Auditorium), 155 Van
Gordon, Lakewood, Colorado
2) Should there be a shutdown of government after December 15,
the presentation may be
rescheduled.
-MMS-
MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service:(202) 219-1703