Methodology, TAGGS

The grant information contained in this report is from the Department’s Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS), which contains data generated by the twelve HHS grant-making staff divisions and operating divisions (OPDIVs). Developed and maintained by the Office of Grants Management and Policy, TAGGS is the Department’s central repository for all grant transaction-level data.

TAGGS tracks obligated grant funds of mandatory and discretionary grant programs at the transaction level. The TAGGS database receives data submissions from the HHS OPDIVs on a monthly basis. In addition to the grant award data received from the OPDIVs, TAGGS receives grant recipient demographic data (e.g., type of organization, address) from the Central Registry System (CRS) and Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Program information from www.cfda.gov.

OG also maintains an internet site (taggs.hhs.gov), which is accessible to the public, which allows users to view standard TAGGS-generated reports or query the database. This TAGGS web site helps to increase the transparency of the Department’s grant making activities and is used directly by OS and OPDIV staff, Congressional offices, other executive agencies, potential and current grant recipients and other interested parties for a variety of informational purposes. Congressional district, grant program name, recipient (grantee) name, recipient location (state, city, zip, and/or congressional district), awarding OPDIV, transaction amount (or sum of transactions), and fiscal year are some commonly searched TAGGS fields.

The data in this report reflect all grant awards obligated during FY 2004. The number of grants is a count of awards or projects receiving grant funds. Projects with a zero or negative total awarded during the fiscal year are not included in this report.

The data contained in this report will not necessarily agree with the FY 2004 budget and accounting records (e.g., Medicaid’s accounting adjustments) for several reasons, including: 1) the grant award data may include reobligations of prior years’ funds in addition to current year funds; 2) costs of furnishing personnel in lieu of cash are included in the grants data, but are recorded as personnel service costs in accounting records; and 3) jointly-funded grants are included in accounting records, but are not included herein unless awards are made by HHS programs.

The dollar amounts set forth in this report for each OPDIV may also differ from the amounts shown in the OPDIVs’ Budget Requests ("Preliminary Budget Submission to HHS," the "Justification of Budget Estimates to OMB," and the "Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees"). Percentages used throughout the report may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding and other minor adjustments.