SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Part A. Justification:
1. Necessity of Information Collection.
On September 13, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-322). Title I of the "crime bill," the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act of 1994 (the ct), authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to States, units of local government, Indian tribal governments, other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia thereof to increase police presence, to expand and improve cooperative efforts between law enforcement agencies and members of the community, to address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise to enhance public safety.
As part of this grant making process, the Attorney General has the authority to establish grant programs, as well as any procedures necessary to administer grants under these programs.
In order to ensure that the COPS Office consistently and accurately monitors the grant awards given each year, COPS wishes to implement a new collection entitled “Status of COPS Grant Implementation Facsimile”. This collection will be sent via fax to grantees 6 months after their award date if they have not sent in a financial report that indicates the drawing down of award funds. Their response to the fax will ensure that either they are planning on using the grant funds but have not drawn done funds yet, that they have drawn down but are delinquent in the financial reporting or if they plan to withdraw from the grant award completely.
2. Needs and Uses
The Status of COPS Grant Implementation Facsimile will be used for in conjunction with all COPS Office grant programs. This one-page form allows grantees to respond to our COPS staff accountants as to the status of their grant when they have not sent in their initial financial report (SF-425) that shows funding draw downs. This information is used to determine whether the grantee has made adequate progress implementing their hiring grant or project. The form provides three options for the grantee to respond to: 1) if they have not yet implemented the grant, but plan to in the future, 2) if they have implemented the grant but are delinquent in sending their SF-425, and 3) if they do not plan to use the grant and need to withdraw. This information is requested to ensure that our grantee customer service is available to grantees and the management of their grant funding.
3. Efforts to Minimize Burden
The proposed COPS Status of Grant Implementation Facsimile will be sent to specific agencies that have received grant awards within that fiscal year but have not sent in an SF-425 to report any draw downs. Agencies will receive it in both fax and email form and will have the option of either emailing it or faxing the response back to COPS, with the one pager being of minimal burden. The form takes approximately .1 hours to complete and the average amount of active grantees it is sent to is 200 respondents annually (those who have not sent in their initial SF-425) or 100 bi-annually. COPS has minimized the burden on the grantee by requesting only the information it needs to determine the what the grantee wishes to do with their grant.
4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
There is no duplicative effort.
5. Methods to Minimize Burden on Small Business
This collection instrument will have no significant impact on small business. The overwhelming majority of COPS Office grants and cooperative agreement applications are received from state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
This information is collected only near the end of the first quarter in which the grant award was received by the grantee when the first SF-425 is due. The grantee can receive this twice a year at a maximum, and these 6-month intervals are needed in order to remain aware of the grantee’s decisions to either implement or withdraw from the grant and maintain those grant funds.
7. Special Circumstances Influencing Collection
There are no special circumstances that would influence the collection of information pertaining to the Status of COPS Grant Implementation Facsimile.
8. Reasons for Inconsistencies with 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no inconsistencies with this regulation. The 60 and 30 day notices were published and the COPS Office received no comments.
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents
The COPS Office does not provide any payment or gift to respondents. Furthermore, it is not permitted under the terms of the grants.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
No assurance of confidentiality has been made to respondents.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature. No information commonly considered as private is included in the proposed requested information.
12. Estimate of Hour Burden
The COPS Grant Implementation Status Facsimile will be faxed to all state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies who have not submitted their initial SF-425 after being awarded grant funds 6 months after the award date. The COPS Office estimates that approximately 200 law enforcement departments will receive this form annually.
An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of time estimated for an average respondent to respond/reply:
It is estimated that 200 respondents annually will complete the form within .1 hours.
An estimate of the total public burden (in hours) associated with the collection:
200 respondents X .1 hours equals an estimated 20 total annual burden hours associated with this collection.
13. Estimate of Cost Burden
Completing this Status of Implementation Facsimile will not generate any costs other than those associated with the applicants’ time. Therefore, the estimated burden cost is 0.
14. Estimated Annualized Cost to Federal Government
The estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for reviewing and processing the projected 200 is negligible per form. The only costs associated would be the time spent for staff accountants to review and provide outreach to the grantee if needed (we have approximated this as half an hour of government time). No special equipment is required. The total cost to the Federal government is estimated as follows:
COPS Grant Implementation Facsimile costs:
.5 hours per form x 200 forms = 100 hours
100 hours @ $20 per hour = $2,000 for review
15. Reason for Change in Burden
There is no change in burden for this collection.
16 Publication
This data collection will not be published.
17. Request not to Display OMB Control Number
The COPS Office will display the OMB approval number and expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to Certification Statement
The COPS Office does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.
Part B. Statistical Methods
This collection of information does not require the employment of statistical methods.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | karen beckma |
| Last Modified By | Danielle Ouellette |
| File Modified | 2014-03-18 |
| File Created | 2014-01-16 |