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Sweeping management improvements have been made at the U.S. Department of Education, reversing a long history of deficiencies and allowing the agency to focus on its core mission of raising the quality of education at all levels for all children and adults, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said today.

Paige released a status report on the first anniversary of the release of his Blueprint For Management Excellence.

"President Bush is dedicated to ensuring that the resources entrusted to the federal government are well-managed and wisely used," Secretary Paige said. "Just over a year ago, I pledged to reverse a long history of problems at the department, to restore the confidence of Congress and the public in the department; and to achieve the president's goals. And I'm pleased to report that we've made much progress.

"Thanks to the extra efforts of Deputy Secretary Bill Hansen and his entire team, we're on our way to becoming a model for how government agencies should operate on behalf of the American people. I applaud Bill and his entire team for their accomplishments."

The status report chronicles progress made by the Department of Education since April 2001, when Secretary Paige announced an initiative to put the department's management and financial house in order. This initiative sought to restore the confidence of Congress and the public in the Department of Education and to ensure that the department became a responsible steward of taxpayers' funds. With the help of department employees and managers, the department took steps to address long-standing management problems.

The status report focuses on 11 related management areas: Blueprint for Management Excellence; the Strategic Plan; the Executive Management Team (EMT); Financial Management; Student Financial Assistance Programs "High-Risk" Designation; IT Security Improvements; Audit Resolution; Executive Information System; OMB Scorecard; Culture of Accountability; and One-ED.

Highlights of the status report include:

• At the one-year anniversary of the Blueprint, the department has completed or closed 76 percent of the original planned actions. An additional nine percent of the planned actions are due to be completed in line with their originally scheduled dates.
• In the area of erroneous payments, the department has established targets to reduce the number and amount of erroneous payments by 10 percent per year through FY 2007.
• The department issued a revised purchase card procedures directive in January 2002 -- OMB has referred to these new policies and procedures as "best practices."
• The department has made significant strides in the area of student loan default management and prevention -- it collected more than $966 million in non-consolidated loans, exceeding the FY 2002 collection goals by over 5 percent.
• Of 941 management-related audit recommendations, the department has completed corrective actions on 80 percent and is working to implement the remaining 20 percent.

"The management improvements we have implemented will help the department move toward becoming a model agency of management and program excellence," said Deputy Secretary Bill Hansen, who leads the department's management improvement efforts. "Plans, of course, are not by themselves sufficient to ensure success. We will remain vigilant and continually monitor implementation, make adjustments as needed, and allocate resources, as necessary, to ensure that we continue to make improvements and successfully address any lingering problems we have not yet overcome."

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