The Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice (DoJ) is fast tracking its new grants database due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking during an April 29 webinar, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Justice Programs at DoJ Katie Sullivan said that the new database will allow for electronic signatures to allow for social distancing.
“We’re on an extremely antiquated grants database system right now,” Sullivan said, adding that the original plan was to complete the database by October. “Everyone came together. They worked with [the Office of the CIO], of course, on the technological piece, and they were able to come up with a certification and everything to make sure that the signature was what they say it is.”
Elsewhere during the panel, guests spoke about the impact of customer experience challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted how agencies approach customer experience priorities.
Assistant Commissioner for Office of Solutions at Technology Transformation Services (TTS) within the General Services Administration Dominic Sale said that TTS is doing its best to communication and interact with all its customers and employees regardless of what the channels are.
“The government has really shifted on a dime and how we’re interacting with each other,” Sale said. “If anyone knows anything about government, it sometimes takes a crisis to make us move quickly. And then it’s really hard to change after that so we’re going to develop some habits and processes. So this is how we do business now.”
