TO:	All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact All State Homeland Security Directors All State Emergency Management Directors
FROM:	Matt 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.