Note to Reviewer

Note to Reviewer of 1220-0149:

The 2003 clearance of the OSHS CA called for BLS to continue to participate in DOL efforts to have an e-grants system in place that would interface with the system DHHS is developing. The BLS has been represented at the monthly meetings of the DOL eGrants Advisory Board and at the periodic meetings of the DOL eGrants User Group. BLS staff have spent numerous hours with eGrants contract staff to provide details of BLS business processes and to lay out requirements specific to BLS grants management. Staff at both the national and regional level participated in a series of collaborative teleconference training sessions to learn about the new system. ETA is the first DOL agency to begin using the new system, which went live on June 1, 2006. BLS and other DOL agencies' use of the system will be phased in over the next year. At this time, interconnectivity issues between the BLS local area network and the DOL network are keeping BLS staff from testing the new system. Information technology staffs on both sides are working to resolve the issues. Meanwhile, BLS staff continue to participate in meetings related to the Grants.gov "front office" system. The BLS grants manager is the sole DOL representative on the Grants.gov User Group, which looks at recommended improvements to the system, and grants staff attend monthly stakeholder meetings to stay on top of developments so as to enable BLS to make the transition to electronic application. Although BLS grantees, in general, have indicated that they do not wish to make the transition, the BLS is committed to providing the grantees the option of applying electronically.