This week, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that the use of a centralized electronic system for grants is reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and significantly shortening the application review time while maintaining a thorough evaluation process. When fully implemented, e-grants will be available for 30 grants administered by DEP, saving $200,000 annually.
DEP was the first agency to begin using the Department of Community and Economic Development’s (DCED) electronic grants system for one of its programs. This has allowed DEP to modernize its application and review processes without having to build or buy its own system.
The e-grant system reduces applicant errors and allows for electronic approval, which reduces processing time and speeds review. DCED provides online application customer support. DEP staff score applications online and no longer perform manual data entry. As a result of these and other efficiencies, the grant review process that formerly took about two weeks has been reduced to an average of two days.
