PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island will get an $800,000 bonus for improvements in the way it administers the food stamps program, officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday in a joint news conference with Governor Carcieri and other state officials.

“I wish every day in state government could be so good,” joked Gary Alexander, director of the state Department of Human Services, which administers the program.

The USDA is disbursing $30 million to the 14 states with the lowest error rates or biggest decrease in their error rates.

In a single year, Rhode Island decreased one key error rate by 60 percent, said Kate Houston, deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services with the USDA. For that and another measure the department tracks, an annual audit found that Rhode Island’s error rates were roughly half the national average.

There is still room for improvement: Both Nebraska and Vermont had a “negative error rate” of zero, meaning that within the group sampled as part of the audit, the states’ programs served every eligible individual who applied for benefits.

But Rhode Island’s negative error rate last year was 3.05 percent, well below the national average of 5.99 percent. And its payment error rate — the one that decreased by 60 percent — was 4.02 percent, compared to a national average of 8.02 percent. That rate measures the number of people who received benefits when they should not have been eligible.

Rhode Island distributes about $7.5 million a month to about 77,500 people through the food stamps program, which is wholly federally financed.

As recently as 2004, Rhode Island received a $700,000 sanction because its error rates were so high.

Advocates from the George Wiley Center attended the news conference to hail the good news. It was a shift in tone for the Wiley Center, which has repeatedly criticized the way the state administers the food stamps program.

One of those advocates, Liz Marsis, explained that the Wiley Center’s criticisms focused on a different measure, the percentage of people eligible for food stamps who apply and enroll in the program — 52 percent in Rhode Island. On that measure, Rhode Island ranked fifth from the bottom, according to data released by the USDA last October.

And Rhode Island’s rate of growth in the number of people enrolled in the program — 1.75 percent over five years, compared to a national average of 40 percent — was second to last in the nation.

Officials said yesterday that Rhode Island does not have to use the $800,000 for the food stamps program, and in fact there are no restrictions on how the money is used.

But advocates said yesterday that they hope the state will reinvest the money in the program and make changes that make it easier for people who qualify to enroll. For instance, they are calling for DHS offices to expand their hours of operation so people who work during the day can apply for food stamps during the evening instead.

egudrais@projo.com