October 27, 1995

Honorable Richard W. Riley
Secretary of Education
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am pleased to submit this Semiannual Report on the activities of the Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the six-month period ending September 30, 1995. Submission of the report is in accordance with section 5 of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-452, as amended). The Act requires that you transmit this report, along with any comments you may wish to make, to the appropriate Congressional committees and subcommittees within 30 days.

During the last several months, the Federal government has confronted sweeping changes in management philosophy and practice on the one hand and increasingly perilous fiscal constraints and uncertainties on the other. The OIG has responded to these challenges with a dynamic program of operational and organizational change that has transformed our approach to our work and the size and structure of our organization. The results of these changes have already begun to reverberate throughout the education community. This period, cooperative efforts between the OIG and Department program managers; Federal, State and local officials; and parents, teachers, and other concerned individuals and organizations, have enabled diverse parties to work together in a common effort to develop solutions to problems of longstanding and mutual concern.

In meeting the challenges that have come before us during the last several months, the OIG has benefited tremendously from the professional skills and creativity of OIG staff who have often turned adverse circumstances into opportunities for improvement. This does not, however, diminish the very real concern that certain of those challenges, specifically the severe budget cuts, pose a serious threat to the vitality, and in some cases the very existence, of the improved products and processes that are the result of those efforts. Despite these uncertainties, the Office of Inspector General sustained by the strength of the working relationships we have developed with Department managers and others in the education community, and the successes they have helped engender remains committed to serving the interests of students and taxpayers by helping Education officials ensure the highest possible levels of integrity and effectiveness in the programs and operations of the Department of Education.

Sincerely,

John P. Higgins, Jr.
Acting Inspector General
Enclosure

Back to OIG Semiannual Report to Congress, No. 31