December 14, 2001, 2:36 PM EST

A database is operating that lists Sept. 11th attack victims, their needs, and the charity they have received, and officials hope it will reduce the frustration victims feel navigating the maze of organizations providing relief.

The database is designed to foster fair distribution of the more than $1.4 billion collected. Some victims have complained they've been shortchanged in the relief effort.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who conceived the idea shortly after the terrorist attacks, announced the database's formation Friday at a Manhattan news conference, where he credited IBM and several other large corporations for their donated work developing the system.

Spitzer was joined by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as a coalition of 13 non-profit organizations - the 9/11 United Services Group - which will run the database and provide caseworkers to victims who need help getting relief. By providing charities with information about each victim, Spitzer said that charities will be able to bypass the forms, receipts and identification they've had to request from victims.

"The victims have told me that often they are made to feel like beggars, in effect, tin cup in hand, filling out application after application with group after group," Spitzer said. "Now, with the formation of the database, the basic needs information that have already been given to one charity will be shared by all."

The database contains more than 50,000 entries, with much of the information collected from large charities who have already provided assistance to victims. Spitzer said the information must still be streamlined to eliminated repetitious entries.

Some victims, meanwhile, have declined to have their personal information on a central computer, even though it is not available to the media or public.

Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities, will chair the 9/11 United Services Group and Goldman Sachs vice chairman Robert Hurst will serve as its chief executive officer.

At Friday's new conference, Sullivan encouraged victims of the terrorist attacks who need a caseworker to call a September 11th Support Hotline at 866-689-4357.

Among the groups involved in the effort were the American Red Cross in Greater New York, the Catholic Charities of New York and Brooklyn, The Salvation Army and the UJA Federation of New York. Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.