RFAM 03-03, Attachment 1
Memorandum
To: Solicitor
Inspector General
Assistant Secretaries
Bureau and Office Heads
From: Nina Rose Hatfield /signed/
Deputy Assistant Secretary - Budget and Finance
Subject:
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE (GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE
AGREEMENTS) POLICY: DUN AND BRADSTREET DATA UNIVERSAL NUMBERING SYSTEM REQUIREMENT FOR GRANT/COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT APPLICATIONS
The attached Departmental policy implements a new Governmentwide policy which requires that prospective financial assistance applicants apply for, and include a Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number on their applications for Federal grants and cooperative agreements. Under the policy, every application for a new grant or cooperative agreement award or renewal of an award, including applications or plans under mandatory grant programs, submitted on or after October 1, 2003, must include a DUNS number for the applicant.
The policy is part of the implementation of the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-107), and is also designed to further implement the Grants.gov initiative under the President's Management Agenda. Two of the major Grants.gov goals are the elimination of redundant or disparate electronic and paper-based data collection, and defining and implementing standard processes and data definitions for Federal grant customer interactions.
Under the Grants.gov initiative, Federal agencies are in the process of developing an electronic grant application system using standard core data elements. The DUNS number is one of those data elements. It will be used to link to fixed applicant data, such as name and address fields, maintained in a central Federal registration repository. This will allow the data to automatically populate corresponding fields in the electronic application. As a result, applicants will not have to re-enter this information on each electronic application they submit.
Bureau/Office Directors are responsible ensuring that this policy is distributed to all of their bureau/office's grant-making programs; appropriate outreach and notification regarding the new data collection requirement is provided to prospective financial assistance applicants prior to, and following the October 1, 2003 effective date; any grants/cooperative agreement announcements or other funding notifications that have been issued having acceptance dates on or after October 1, 2003 are amended to inform potential applicants of the DUNS requirement; grant and cooperative agreement applications and plans are revised to include a DUNS number data element; and bureau/office grant and cooperative agreement-related processing systems, and other systems as appropriate, are able to accept the DUNS number.
The Grants.gov DUNS requirement was one of the many grants-related topics covered at the five Department of the Interior sponsored Public Law 106-107 public consultations held in February and March 2003. It was also shared with the Department's financial assistance community at the April 2003 Departmentwide Acquisition, Financial Assistance, and Business Utilization and Development Conference. Interior Federal Assistance Work Group members have been informed of this policy and draft copies were also provided to them for review and comment.
If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact Debra Sonderman, Director, Office of Acquisition and Property Management (PAM) on 202-208-6352. Members of your staff may contact Tammy Pataluna, PAM, on 202-208-4080 or Patricia Corrigan, PAM on 202-208-1906 for further assistance.