Governmentwide e-grant site to debut in October

The federal government expects to have a single Web site for posting information on all available grants by October 2003, a Bush administration official said Tuesday.

Ed Sontag, the assistant secretary for administration and management at the Health and Human Services Department told a congressional panel that the department is the lead entity coordinating the e-grants initiative. It involves 25 other federal department and agencies that distribute $400 billion in federal grants annually.

Linda Springer, controller for the Office of Federal Financial Management at the White House Office of Management of Budget, also testified that the office is working on streamlining government standards for grant applications, an effort that should be finalized by June.

Recipients of federal grants have complained that they must know different standards and procedures for each agency and that the situation has been compounded by each agency crafting its own electronic grants system.