Fierce Telecom reports…

A government watchdog warned the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) isn’t doing enough to measure the success of its Tribal broadband programs as the agency continues to dole out funding for broadband upgrades across the 56 million acres of Indian Reservation lands. …

Yet while the NTIA continues to dole out funding through the TBCP and the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP), the agency isn’t doing enough to ensure the successful performance of these programs, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released earlier this year. The report described NTIA’s program management of TBCP and BIP as “generally consistent with recommended practices for awarding grants.” But the GAO took issue with the NTIA’s claims of providing “reliable” and “affordable” connectivity without defining those terms — thereby making them not effectively quantifiable.

These findings prompted a list of 15 recommendations for better performance monitoring and program implementation success. The recommendations would effectively create a dedicated NTIA administrator to establish program goals and measurements within the TBCP and BIP, define and measure “reliable” and “affordable” connectivity, and monitor fraud risk within the program. The status of these recommendations currently remains open, and the GAO intends to provide updates to the responses taken by the NTIA as it becomes available.

From the GAO report here are the 15 recommendations:

1. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should establish performance goals and measures for all of the program’s purposes—funding broadband use and adoption projects as well as funding broadband infrastructure deployment projects. (Recommendation 1)
2. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure the performance goal is quantifiable and measurable by defining broadband reliability and affordability. (Recommendation 2)
3. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should designate a dedicated entity to lead fraud risk management activities for the program. (Recommendation 3)
4. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity identifies inherent fraud risks in the program. (Recommendation 4)
5. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity assesses the likelihood and impact of inherent fraud risks in the program. (Recommendation 5)
6. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity determines fraud risk tolerance for the program. (Recommendation 6)
7. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity examines the suitability of existing antifraud controls in the program and prioritizes residual fraud risks. (Recommendation 7)
8. For TBCP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity documents the fraud risk profile for the program. (Recommendation 8)
9. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure the performance goal is quantifiable and measurable by defining broadband affordability. (Recommendation 9)
10. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should designate a dedicated entity to lead fraud risk management activities for the program. (Recommendation 10)
11. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity identifies inherent fraud risks in the program. (Recommendation 11)
12. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity assesses the likelihood and impact of inherent fraud risks in the program. (Recommendation 12)
13. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity determines fraud risk tolerance for the program. (Recommendation 13)
14. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity examines the suitability of existing antifraud controls in the program and prioritizes residual fraud risks. (Recommendation 14)
15. For BIP, the Administrator of NTIA should ensure that the dedicated entity documents the fraud risk profile for the program. (Recommendation 15)