POLICY SHIFT TO INCREASE PROGRAM OVERSIGHT

Contact: Eric Edgington (202) 690-2539
Eric.Edgington@rma.usda.gov

WASHINGTON, Sep 17, 1999 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator Ken Ackerman announced today a new initiative that lays the groundwork for increasing the integrity of the crop insurance program. The initiative is the result of a 15-month Business Process Reengineering effort, conducted jointly by RMA and the insurance companies that sell and service crop insurance.

"This program has grown enormously while the resources available to the government for oversight have stayed the same," said Ackerman. "As a result, we must leverage our resources by working with and through our delivery partners to anticipate and prevent problems before they happen. Preventing errors and abuses will pay much greater dividends to American taxpayers than having to take extraordinary measures once errors are discovered."

RMA and the companies determined that program oversight will improve by implementing specific steps to target resources at shared objectives and increase communication. Implementation of the recommendations will take place immediately.

According to Ackerman, the initiative is consistent with RMA's operating philosophy of developing policy objectives and then ensuring insurance providers, research organizations and academic institutions have the tools and incentives to succeed. This approach has resulted in effective partnerships to sell and service crop insurance, develop new insurance products and train farmers to become better risk managers.

"Problems always accompany growth," said Ackerman. "Our goal is to make sure that everybody -- RMA and insurance companies -- is working actively to keep them to a minimum."