§ 1703.119 - Appeal provisions.

All qualifying applications under this subpart will be scored based on criteria in section § 1703.117. A determination will be made by RUS based on the highest ranking applications and the amount of funds available for grants and loans. All applicants will be notified in writing of the score each application receives, and included in this notification will be a tentative minimum required score to receive financial assistance. If the score received by the applicant could result in the denial of its application, or if its score, while apparently sufficient to qualify for financial assistance, may be surpassed by the score awarded to a competing application after appeal, the applicant may appeal its numerical scoring. Any appeal must be based on inaccurate scoring of the application by RUS and no new information or data that was not included in the original application will be considered. The appeal must be made in writing within 10 days after the applicant is notified of the scoring results. Appeals shall be submitted to the Administrator, Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., STOP 1590, Washington, DC 20250-1590. Thereafter, the Administrator will review the original scoring to determine whether to sustain, reverse or modify the original scoring determination. Final determinations will be made after consideration of all appeals. The Administrator's determination will be final. A copy of the Administrator's decision will be furnished promptly to the applicant. An appeal based solely upon the type of financial assistance the applicant qualifies for will not be considered.