In its quarterly report to the Federal Communications Commission, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) continues to report that approximately $1 billion in unused funds from previous Funding Years could be used to supplement current and future requests for E-rate discounts. Based on the FCC’s Third Report and Order, the FCC can direct USAC to apply unused funds increase the amount of available funding for a funding year.
In its quarterly report to the Federal Communications Commission, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) continues to report that approximately $1 billion in unused funds from previous Funding Years could be used to supplement current and future requests for E-rate discounts. Based on the FCC’s Third Report and Order, the FCC can direct USAC to apply unused funds increase the amount of available funding for a funding year.
The FCC announced in June 2007 and June 2008 the rollover amounts USAC could anticipate using for those respective years. The FCC has not made a decision if it will rollover these unused funds to FY 2009.
USAC reported the breakdown of unused funds by year as follows:
- FY 1999 – $25 million
- FY 2001 – $50 million
- FY 2002 – $50 million
- FY 2003 – $200 million
- FY 2004 – $275 million
- FY 2005 – $200 million
- FY 2006 – $175 million
- FY 2007 – $25 million
In response to the FCC Office of Inspector General’s concerns about the high improper payment rate, USAC continues to implement their plan to address this situation. USAC has hired an auditing firm to provide feedback about their own internal controls and processes, USAC is evaluating ways to strengthen their “audit and investigatory techniques”, improving their information technology tools and will continue to expand their education and outreach activities.
USAC has reported in recent past quarterly reports and reiterated their intent to step up their efforts in 2009 to validate compliance with CIPA, but has not publicly released information on what this increased validation checks will entail or how beneficiaries can demonstrate their compliance with this requirement. (See FFL’s recent blog post on CIPA: /content/view/1236/103/)
The USAC Quarterly Report can be viewed here.
