U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today applauded the department's significant progress in meeting the goals of the President's Management Agenda, as recognized by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

OMB's latest Executive Branch Management Scorecard shows the Education Department received a major PMA Scorecard upgrade when the department's status score skipped past yellow and moved straight from red to green on the Financial Management item. The department strengthened its ranking in the top one-third of all government agencies.

"These results are part of a disciplined effort by our department to lead by example," he said. "We are asking a lot of our nation's schools – we are asking them to be accountable. In return, we are asking a lot of ourselves. This department and our nation's education system have come a long way since the president signed No Child Left Behind into law. Our financial house is in order, and we have received our second consecutive unqualified ‘clean' audit opinion in as many years. Every state in the union has an approved accountability plan that accounts for every child, and the national dialogue on education has dramatically matured.

"We are delighted that we are seeing tangible results with strong progress across the board. Quality education is a right that must be protected and fulfilled for every child in our country. We will not rest until no child is left behind."

OMB's scorecard tracks progress by the various agencies in meeting the key aspects of the President's Management Agenda. Among them:

• Human capital.
• Competitive sourcing.
• Financial management.
• E-government.
• Budget and performance integration.
• Faith-based and community initiative. And,
• Elimination of fraud and error in student financial assistance.

Scores are assigned with a simple "traffic light" grading system: green for success, yellow for mixed results, and red for unsatisfactory.

In every category, OMB gave the Education Department green lights for its successful "progress" in implementing the President's Management Agenda. Additionally, Education was one of only four Chief Financial Officers Act agencies that have achieved green on "status" for financial management, and it is the only cabinet agency to achieve this credit.

Further, Education was one of only a handful of the 24 CFO Act agencies that met the voluntary accelerated Nov. 14 deadline for submitting its Fiscal Year 2003 Performance and Accountability (PAR) report to OMB.

To achieve these accomplishments, including the consecutive clean audits, the department has promoted a culture of accountability with a package of effective internal controls to prevent credit card abuse, duplicate payments, and protect its assets.

To begin its management improvement efforts, the department sought the advice of the Council for Excellence in Government, the Private Sector Council and the National Academy of Public Administration to identify and solve management challenges.

A Management Improvement Team was created to coordinate the resolution of management issues and became a permanent clearinghouse for ongoing administrative improvements. The group examined ways to cultivate leadership and improve the quality of work within the department, establishing performance standards tied to its strategic goals.

In 2001, the department replaced its existing financial accounting system with Oracle Federal Financials. The new system enhanced financial integrity by providing more timely, accurate and reliable financial information for managing the department's programs.

Education was the first cabinet-level agency to successfully implement Oracle Federal Financials departmentwide. Under this new system, the department now produces financial statements directly from the accounting system and continues to produce these financial statements on a monthly basis.

From a financial management perspective, the Department of Education is a complex organization with the smallest number of employees -- about 4,600 -- managing the third-largest discretionary budget of cabinet-level agencies.

The department administers multiple programs, such as Direct Loan student aid, the guarantee loan program, grant projects and revolving funds. Its Direct Loan portfolio amounts to nearly $100 billion, while guaranteeing about $200 billion in additional loans

Taken together, these programs involve a $300 billion portfolio with approximately 22 million borrowers, making the department one of the largest lenders and guarantors in the world.

For more details on management improvement, visit the department's priorities Web page at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/mission/priorities.html.

###

Top

Back to January 2004