Office of the Secretary

Office of State and Local 

Government 

Coordination & 

Preparedness 

Washington, DC 20531 

ODP Information Bulletin 

No. 154 March 15, 2005 

TO All State Administrative Agency Heads 

 All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact 

 All State Homeland Security Directors 

 All State Emergency Management Directors 

FROM: Matt A. Mayer 

 Acting Executive Director 

SUBJECT: FY 2004 BSIR Data Validation Process 

To ensure the continuation of high quality Biannual Strategy Implementation Reports 

(BSIR), SLGCP will conduct a review and validation of all BSIRs in coordination with the 

State Administrative Agencies (SAAs). The data review will be conducted using a set of 

success criteria that is based on the reporting requirements outlined in the Fiscal Year (FY) 

2004 grant application kits. To facilitate cross-period reporting, FY 2004 BSIR and ISIP 

submissions will be compared during the validation process; any major inconsistencies will 

be noted and raised with the SAA. 

SAAs will be notified via email if their BSIR does not meet the success criteria, and will be 

provided with a set of Validation Reports that contain summary information about their 

submission as it relates to the key success criteria. States should use these reports to 

identify the errors in their submission. 

The data correction process will commence once a Preparedness Officer has entered a 

“Change Request” in the Grants Reporting Tool (GRT), thereby unlocking the data for 

further modifications. At that time, a state can begin making changes in the system based 

on its review of the Validation Reports. To ensure the timely completion of all data 

corrections, SAAs will be required to revise and resubmit their BSIR via the GRT within 5 

business days after the “Change Request” has been posted to the system. Assistance in the 

revision and resubmission of the BSIR is available and should be coordinated through the 

appropriate Preparedness Officer. Technical assistance can be scheduled by following the 

standard request procedure outlined in the Appendix of this document. 

The BSIR success criteria are similar to those used during the FY 2004 Initial Strategy 

Implementation Plan (ISIP) data validation process. The success criteria are detailed on the 

following page. 
Success Criteria Validation Description

1. BSIR submission dollars equal 

grant awards within the allowable 

reporting discrepancy 

BSIR funding totals to no less than $1 per subgrantee 

per grant program from which the subgrantee received 

funding. BSIR funding totals may not exceed the grant 

award. 

2. The SAA has complied with the 

80/20 pass through requirement 

The SAA has passed through no less than 80% of each 

FY2004 grant program to local jurisdictions 

3. a) The SAA has complied with the 

3% maximum M&A allocation 

b) No UASI funding is utilized by 

the SAA for M&A activities 

a) No more than 3% of each grant program is allocated 

to M&A activities 

b) No UASI funding allocated to M&A activities by 

the SAA 

4. SAA and/or other state agencies 

have complied with all MOU 

requirements 

The SAA certifies that MOUs are in place to account 

for all funding held by the SAA or other state agencies 

on behalf of local jurisdictions 

5. All subgrantees receiving 

UASI/TSP funding are aligned to 

an urban area 

All subgrantees that receive urban area funding have 

aligned themselves with an Urban Area 

6. ‘Other’ goal category only selected 

to capture projects that do not map 

to a current goal but will map to a 

goal that is under revision 

Less that 10% of total grant award is allocated to 

projects linked to ‘Other’ as a strategic goal; 

Submissions that exceed this amount must complete the 

following within the BSIR reporting period: 

1) Submit to SLGCP a written justification for use of 

the ‘Other’ goal category 

2) Submit to SLGCP a written timeline for the 

completion of a revised strategy that will include 

goals that align to projects that are currently aligned 

to the ‘Other’ category goals 

Additionally, ODP is tracking the goals and objectives reported for each project involving funds 

from urban area grant programs. Urban area spending should be made in accordance with urban 

area strategies. Alignment with state strategies alone is not sufficient. States will receive a report 

on this aspect of their BSIR submission along with the other validation reports. States are 

encouraged to align their urban area project spending with the urban area strategies; however, no 

change requests will be made on this criterion. If a state wishes to make changes to these urban 
area projects which do not align with urban area strategies, they can do so by seeking a change 

request from their state Preparedness Officer. In the future, all projects involving urban area 

spending must be linked to at least one urban area goal and objective. 

When a BSIR submission has met all of the success criteria and is approved by the Preparedness 

Officer, the submission is considered final and no further action is required. The submission will 

be available for reference in a read-only format until the next reporting cycle. 
Appendix 

FY04 BSIR Technical Assistance Scheduling Process

All requests for technical assistance must be made in writing and sent through the SAA to 

SLGCP. This process consists of the following steps: 

(1) The SAA sends the request to the corresponding SLGCP Preparedness Officer. 

(2) The Preparedness Officer forwards the request to the Technical Assistance Programs 

Division. 

(3) Upon receipt of the request, the SLGCP BSIR TA Manager will give the TA Provider formal 

permission to contact the TA Requestor to schedule the delivery. 

(4) Once the TA delivery has been scheduled, the TA Provider will send a confirmation email to 

the TA Requestor, courtesy copying the CSID (askcsid@dhs.gov), corresponding 

Preparedness Officer, and BSIR TA Manager. 

(5) The corresponding Preparedness Officer and TA Manager will also be courtesy copied on all 

subsequent email communication between the TA Provider and TA Requestor. 

(6) After the TA delivery has been completed, the TA Provider will complete an after action 

report (AAR) and submit it within seven business days of the workshop to the CSID and the 

BSIR TA Manager. The CSID will post the AAR to the appropriate state folder on the ODP 

shared drive, and send an email confirmation to the Preparedness Officer that the AAR has 

been posted.