INCORRECT PAYMENTS FROM UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND SHOOT TO 19.2%

摘要

The Universal Service Fund's payment error rate increased to 19.2 percent in fiscal 2008 from 14.9 percent in 2007, a Congressional Research Service report said. The report called the increase "significant." It put the error rate for all programs in 2008 at 3.9 percent. Incorrect USF payments were $1.3 billion, up from $906 million the previous year, the report said. "Progress in reducing improper payments has been uneven, with rates rising and falling over time," the report said. The USF program was among those with double-digit error rates reported for the first time in fiscal 2007, the Service said. The report blamed the errors on claims with insufficient information and on clerical errors in processing paperwork. Agencies are required under a 2002 law to report the steps they're taking to fix payment errors. But a recent Government Accountability Office report found that only four agencies supplied the information. The FCC wasn't among them. Bills in Congress, S-1508 and HR-3393, would raise reporting requirements and call for a possible appropriations freeze if problems aren't dealt with.