I wanted to share with you some good news on our Better Than Average food stamp accuracy improvement campaign. You all know our goal is to perform better than the national average, and achieve at least 93% food stamp payment accuracy in Federal Fiscal Year 2004. So far, your hard work and increased focus on work quality appears to be yielding results. Thank you for your contribution to improving our accuracy. There are many things that are contributing to our increased success. One that
I'd like to highlight is the Quality Assessment Review Committee. The QARC examines quality control sample cases before we finalize the findings. This group has done a great job of looking at these individual QC error cases closely and trying to prove them right. To date, their impact has been profound.
An October error was changed to no error and the amount of two November
errors have been significantly reduced. For the first 31 QC reviews in
the new year's sample that have been completed and "QARCed" we have a
94% accuracy rate. Without this process, we would have reported a 90%
accuracy rate. A full four percentage point difference! Thanks to all
who have devoted their their time and expertise to the QARC.
It will be a month or so until we have clearer numbers on our
performance accuracy, yet the early indicators are positive. Keep up
the good work and continued effort to achieve our Better than Average
campaign goal of 93% accuracy. If we can, we'll also be a strong
contender for a performance bonus award for most improved payment
accuracy. Onward and Upward!
Jim Dalman
Chief of Program Integrity and Analysis