CARRIERS ATTACK FCC AUDITS OF USF HIGH-COST PROGRAM

摘要

The FCC must fix its audit program for the high-cost program of the Universal Service Fund, USTelecom and CTIA told the commissioners in a scathing letter. The associations questioned a November audit report from the FCC's Office of Inspector General, which said the high-cost fund had an error payment rate of 23.3 percent. "The current audit program ... results in misleading statistics," and that "undermines the credibility of the audits and the USF," they said. The more than 1,000 annual audits of high-cost support recipients by the IG's office have drained $100 million yearly from the USF, the associations said. "Only a tiny fraction of those costs are recovered through refunds to the USF of improper payments identified during the audits." The FCC should scale back the program and base selection of carriers for audits "on an actual assessment of likely risk," they said. Fixing the program requires timely audit reports, better training, and "uniform standards" that take into account the audited company's size and the number of companies being studied, they said.