Pennsylvania School District Must Repay E-Rate Funding, FCC Bureau Says
The FCC Wireline Bureau rejected an appeal from the Harrisburg City School District in Pennsylvania of a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision that the district and its service provider, EMO Communications, must repay E-rate funds. The district’s former director of…
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information technology was convicted of taking bribes from an EMO official and falsely certifying that EMO provided the system with E-rate supported services and equipment. Both the former school employee and EMO official were sent to prison and ordered to make restitution, the bureau said in a Friday order. USAC issued a "Notification of Improperly Disbursed Funds Letter to Harrisburg and EMO seeking to recover $2,885,475 (the $5,050,431 that was wrongly disbursed minus the $2,164,956 that was ordered to be paid in restitution),” the order said. The bureau upheld the decision by USAC. “The Commission has a duty to protect” the USF “against waste, fraud, and abuse, and such a duty requires us to seek recovery where, as in this case, the beneficiary bears the responsibility for a rule or statutory violation,” the bureau said. The school district didn't comment.