  The preliminary data of the PHENIX collaboration for the scaled variances of
charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au+Au at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV are
analyzed within the model of independent sources. We use the HSD transport
model to calculate the participant number fluctuations and the number of
charged hadrons per nucleon participant in different centrality bins. This
combined picture leads to a good agreement with the PHENIX data and suggests
that the measured multiplicity fluctuations result dominantly from participant
number fluctuations. The role of centrality selection and acceptance is
discussed separately.
