NTIA Should Use PSIC Lessons to Distribute Stimulus Funds, Inspector General Says
The NTIA should look to the lessons of its past grant programs, as the agency moves closer to cementing the rules for disbursing its portion of the $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus money, said the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General in a report Friday.
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Specifically, the agency should review its Public Safety Interoperable Communications program (PSIC), a $1 billion grants initiative established by the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, the IG office said. Beginning in 2007, PSIC grants were made to help public safety agencies acquire and deploy interoperable communications systems that utilize reallocated 700 MHz spectrum for radio communications.
Like NTIA’s $4.5 billion Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program (BTOP), PSIC has the same Sept. 30, 2010, deadline and the same 20 percent non-federal investment requirement. Many PSIC grantees now “appear unlikely to finish projects” within the time frame and, given the similarities of the programs, NTIA should note several possible pitfalls for BTOP, the Inspector General said.
The NTIA should revise BTOP’s requirements to extend the operational time frame at least a year beyond the award period of the last grant issued so the agency could “continue to manage and properly manage all grants,” the report advises. As is, unfinished projects will lose federal funding and management beyond Sept. 30, 2010, and unused funds will go back to the federal government.
The agency should also evaluate project proposals with joint peer reviews to move the process along before making grant awards, the report said. PSIC’s legislation required that grant awards be made before the grantees had submitted business plans, though the funds were not released until the plans were reviewed. As a result, projects were delayed by 6 to 12 months, it said.
Environmental assessments also slowed the PSIC process, the IG said. The NTIA should make sure that future assessments are done quickly in order to make sure the grants are out by the deadline, the report said.
The advice was posted on the Commerce Department’s Website in a “flash report,” a new feature that the agencies responsible for giving out federal funding through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 use to disseminate suggestions and information quickly.