Federal System for Award Management – Agency Registration -Updated
In order to be awarded federal funds, an agency must now obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and be actively registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM). Failure to register in SAM (in order to obtain a UEI) or to renew the registration annually may delay the awarding and/or payment of federal funds from the New York State Education Department. Once an agency is registered in SAM, its UEI and SAM registration expiration date must be submitted to NYSED for federal reporting purposes.
What is a UEI?
Effective April 4, 2022, the UEI is a new 12 character alpha-numeric value that replaces the nine digit DUNS number as the unique and official identifier for entities doing business with the federal government. Like the DUNS number, the UEI will be used by the federal government to track how federal funds are allocated and expended by New York State, NYSED, and local organizations. While the DUNS number was issued and maintained by Dun and Bradstreet, the UEI will be generated by the federal System for Award Management (SAM). For this reason, agencies need only visit to SAM.gov | Home register, obtain a UEI, or update a registration.
What is SAM?
SAM is a government-wide registry of organizations doing business with the federal government. The system collects, validates, stores and disseminates business information about the federal government’s trading partners. Introduced in 2012, it is a consolidation of several federal procurement systems, including the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), into one system.
How are the UEI and SAM expiration date reported to NYSED?
As part of the transition from DUNS numbers to UEIs, agencies that were active (had a current registration) in SAM.gov, were automatically assigned a UEI and the information shared with NYSED via a special data file. In this case, the UEI will display in the agency’s New York State Education Department Reference (SEDREF) record, which can be accessed through a search at http://portal.nysed.gov/portal/pls/pref/SED.sed_inst_qry_vw$.startup. Agencies without UEIs on file that are receiving federal funds from NYSED or wish to do so must submit a Payee Information (PI) form to the office to which the most recent application for funding was sent. The PI form updated to collect UEIs is available at www.oms.nysed.gov/cafe/forms.
Issued 4/13/22