FCC Inspector General Recommends Better File Room Security
FCC file room security needs beefing up, the agency’s Office of Inspector General said in a report based on six months of investigations that ended in September. The inquiry came after news reports on a file containing “non- confidential contract documents” relating to telecommunications service between the U.S. and Haiti was lost from the FCC’s Reference Information Center, the IG said.
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The IG effort began after a February column in the Wall Street Journal questioned whether the wayward file might contain evidence relevant to two civil lawsuits. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s office “specifically requested” the investigation, leading to the recommendations to improve security, the IG said. The missing file, never found, was “reconstructed by the International Bureau” and is available in the FCC’s Public Reference Room, the report said. The OIG didn’t clarify the file’s potential bearing on the suits.
Meanwhile, the IG’s office asked Congress for money in the FY2008 budget to fund 23 more auditors, investigators, attorneys and information technology specialists needed to address “dramatic growth in investigative activities.” The report said Martin has been supportive. Since January 2006 the office’s complement of professionals has doubled to 20. “Additional personnel are urgently needed to meet the increasing demands” as FCC programs such as universal service funding and auctions “increase in size and complexity,” the IG said. A KPMG audit of the auction process found “weaknesses,” said the report. A follow-up audit of management controls on conduct of spectrum auctions is in progress, OIG said.
Another audit of the Universal Licensing System used by the Wireless Bureau found “several deficiencies in the controls over the system” which are being corrected, the report said. For the first time, all USF programs “have been subject to random statistical sampling” to see if they meet FCC rules and regulations, the IG’s office said. “These audits have not lessened our concern about the possibilities for fraud, waste and abuse” in the programs run by the Universal Service Administrative Corporation.
At the beginning of the reporting period, 61 cases remained from the prior period, 31 involving USF programs referred to the Department of Justice, the report said. Another 12, three of them USF-related, were received in the current period. Six cases were closed during the current period, leaving 67 pending, said the report.