USF LOW-INCOME PROGRAM GETS NEW SCRUTINY FROM FCC'S IG

摘要

The FCC's inspector general is investigating the Universal Service Fund low-income program and plans to submit a report to the commission and Congress, acting Inspector General David Hunt said Tuesday. In a letter to various committee chairmen and ranking members in the House and Senate, he said his office has withdrawn the previous IG's December finding that all payments by the program were incorrect, because it may not provide a "meaningful and accurate" picture. The inspector general's office is "reviewing whether the low income program disbursement system is in accord with applicable law and meets the goals of eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in the federal universal service program," Hunt said. Afterward, the office will send its "findings, conclusions and recommendations" to the full commission and Congress, he said. nnAn inspector general's report in December called audits of the low-income fund inconclusive, because the Universal Service Administrative Co. hadn't kept documents verifying spending figures. The audit concluded that all $810.6 million in payments made 2007-2008 and the $795.8 million in 2006-2007 must be considered erroneous payments. That decision "was based on an interpretation" of OMB guidance to agencies in carrying out the 2002 Improper Payments Information Act, which tells agencies to count a payment as incorrect if there isn't enough paperwork to figure out whether it's proper, Hunt said. After reviewing USAC's response to the IG report in February, "and considering that OIG did not conduct an audit or other structured examination of the low income program disbursement system to reach that earlier determination, we have decided to withdraw the earlier assessment," he said. Kent Nilsson, the IG in December, wasn't identified in the letter.