A primary goal of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is to expand U.S. broadband Internet access and adoption. To help meet this goal, NTIA administers six broadband programs, including the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). Our objective for this audit was to determine whether NTIA properly disbursed the federal funds provided for the TBCP. We reviewed awards made under NTIA’s first round of TBCP funding. Between September 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022, NTIA awarded about $1.73 billion. Overall, we found that NTIA did not adequately design and implement the award process to ensure that TBCP funds were awarded only for eligible proposed service areas. For the awards we reviewed, we determined that NTIA did not (1) independently verify that grant recipients needed funding for broadband infrastructure deployment and (2) consistently document its process for reviewing TBCP applications. As a result of these issues, the TBCP’s fraud risk is higher, and NTIA could not provide assurance that TBCP awards were made to tribes that did not have access to broadband and actually needed the funds.
Open Recommendations
Recommendation Number | Significant Recommendation | Recommended Questioned Costs | Recommended Funds for Better Use | Additional Details | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
We recommend that NTIA's Associate Administrator for the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth develop and implement formal policy and procedures for validating self-certifications to determine applicants' eligibility for future broadband grant program awards. | |||||
3 | Yes | $0 | $0 | ||
We recommend that NTIA's Associate Administrator for the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth update the office's internal policies and procedures to require reviewers to document detailed justifications for each stage of the review and award processes, and maintain these justifications in the official award files. | |||||
4 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
We recommend that NTIA's Associate Administrator for the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth design quality assurance procedures and implement them throughout the application review process. |