Program Accountability Library (PAL)

ACRONYM: PAL

ORIGINATOR:

Department/Agency Name: U.S. Department of Justice
Major Organization Subdivision: Office of Justice Programs
Minor Organization Subdivision: Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Name of Unit: Control Desk
Street Address: 810 7th Street, NW
City: Washington, DC
State:
Zip Code: 20531
Country: United States
Hours of Service: 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Telephone: 202-307-0623
FAX:
E-Mail Address: ask.ocfo@usdoj.gov

ABSTRACT: OJP was established by the Justice Assistance Act of 1984 to help foster the cooperation and coordination needed to make the criminal justice system function effectively. The Assistant Attorney General for OJP, by statute and delegation from the Attorney General of the United States, carries out policy coordination and management responsibilities for the OJP bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the Community Capacity Development Office (CCDO), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ),the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC),the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) and the various Program Offices. Together these components constitute a single agency whose goal is to implement innovative programs and to foster improvements in the nation's criminal and juvenile justice systems.

PURPOSE: PAL is an automated storage, retrieval, and information management system of OJP assistance awards and contracts, which serves as an active library of all grants awarded both past and present that can be sorted geographically as well as by subject. The system provides for data entry, quality control, interface to individual office tracking systems, and reporting requirements. PAL provides OJP with the ability to support responses to inquiries, and monthly grant management reports. The system consists of four segments: application tracking, grantee report tracking and assistance awards, audit capabilities, and accounting statistics.

ACCESS CONSTRAINTS: All records in PAL are protected from unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. These safeguards include restricting access to those with a need to know to perform their duties using passwords.

USE CONSTRAINTS: Users of PAL will be restricted to only those privileges necessary to perform assigned tasks.

AGENCY PROGRAM: The Control Desk provides the following services for the OJP: award mail out and distribution; data entry, processing post award documents and grant information updates; official file maintenance; and reports (ad hoc and scheduled).

SOURCES OF DATA: The information contained in PAL systems is provided by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, grantees, and sub-award tracking systems executed by the various bureaus and offices.

RESPONSIBLE OFFICE FOR DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION (if different from originator):

Department/Agency Name: U.S. Department of Justice
Major Organization Subdivision: Office of Justice Programs
Minor Organization Subdivision: Office of General Counsel
Name of Unit: Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Staff
Street Address: 810 7th Street, NW
City: Washington, DC
State:
Zip Code: 20531
Country: United States
Hours of Service: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Telephone: 202-307-0790
FAX:
E-Mail Address: AskOGC@usdoj.gov

ORDER PROCESS: A request for any information contained in the Program Accountability Library should be directed to the Office of General Counsel's FOIA Office.

OFFICE OF CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION (if different from the originator):