FCC Closes 58 Audit Recommendations, Gets 48 More in FY 2017

FCC closed 58 audit recommendations and received 48 new ones, it said. An independent auditor said the FCC financial statements "were fairly presented in all material respects, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles," said an attached Nov. 15 letter by OIG. But the auditor noted two "significant deficiencies," also reported in prior years, on USF budgetary accounting and IT controls at the FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. "Inaccurate invoicing deadlines increase the risk of premature deobligations," the auditor said of the FCC's USF budgetary accounting. "Because invoicing deadlines for seven of our samples were January 2018 instead of January 2019, USAC was at risk of improperly de-obligating $29M in FY 2018." On the agency's IT controls, the auditor "found that FCC had not implemented effective policies, procedures and processes over its general support system, FCCNet, and its financial management system, Genesis." The FCC concurred with the auditor's recommendations and said it's acting to address the deficiencies. The FCC had $20.8 billion in total assets in FY 2017, down 4 percent from FY 2016, and $11.6 billion in total liabilities, down 12 percent from the previous fiscal year, the agency said. That left the commission at a total net position of $9.2 billion for FY 2017, up 8 percent from the previous fiscal year, it said. The agency's net cost of operations was $10.2 billion, up 3 percent from FY 2016, and its total budgetary resources were $10.9 billion, up 45 percent from the year before, it said.