Washington — The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General is giving the Bush administration a going-away present: Yet another audit that’s highly critical of the performance of the Office of Student Financial Assistance.

In an audit report released today, the inspector general says the student-aid office, known as FSA, “is not meeting its responsibilities” for reducing the costs and improving service to students and other users of the program of federally subsidized student loans.

The report is the latest in a series of critical assessments by the inspector general and the Government Accountability Office complaining about how FSA has operated under the Bush administration. In one of its harshest critiques, the inspector general declared in September 2006 that FSA, for much of the administration, had “emphasized partnership over compliance in dealing with guarantee agencies, lenders, and servicers.”

In its new audit, the inspector general says FSA has not always fulfilled its planning and reporting responsibilities, has failed to integrate its computer systems, and hasn’t done enough to reduce administrative costs. In a written response appended to the audit report, the Education Department said it disagreed with the first finding, largely accepted the second, and proposed steps to remedy the third.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, in an interview with The Chronicle this week, said that she had adopted many of the inspector general’s previous recommendations, and that she took pride in the overall effort by her staff at FSA.

“We went to work and cleaned up the things that needed to be,” Ms. Spellings said, “and are proud and good stewards” of the federal student-loan system. —Paul Basken