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PSS gets $154K fed grant via Internet
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Posted on May 29 2000
Commissioner of Education Rita Hocog Inos has announced that the PSS has successfully completed its first Internet application for federal funds.
The PSS has been electronically notified by the Federal Transit Administration that its first all electronic application for federal funds has been awarded. The PSS now has access again to $154,000 in federal funds that will be used to pay for the leases on the 13 busses procured by the PSS in 1996. As those annual payments amount to $145,000, the federal money is sufficient to assure that the PSS will not need to use CNMI dollars to meet the lease costs.
Receiving these funds via Internet also underscores the future of transacting grants with federal agencies. Currently the PSS electronically requests and receives grant applications via the “Net” from the U.S. Department of Education but the submission of the applications still requires the use of paper.
During the next year the USDE will convert over to the use of the Internet to submit the grant applications and the PSS now has advanced knowledge of how that process will work as most education agencies do not receive Federal Transit Administration funds. The staff of the PSS has for many years used electronic cash drawdown processes from various federal agencies which allow the PSS to receive the requested federal dollars within a day or two.
During the last two years the cash request process has been made available through the use of Internet. This experience was very helpful to the PSS staff as normally the Federal Transit Administration requires a two-day training session in the States prior to agencies being allowed to complete electronic applications. The PSS staff convinced the federal staff that it has enough experience to attempt the electronic application without delaying until the training.
“Our successful application means we have access to funds months before we would have if we had been forced to wait for the training and it also would have cost the PSS more than $2,000 in travel expenses to attend the Stateside training,” the PSS said.
