Broadband Program Faces Uncertain Funding, and NTIA Needs to Strengthen Its Post-Award Operations

Since April 2010, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce has been providing oversight of the National telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. The program will have no federal funding after Dec. 3, 2010, and this will hinder NTIA's efforts to provide effective long-term oversight of the grants. Despite the potential lack of funding, NTIA's post-award monitoring and oversight practices need to be strengthened in several ways:

• Some agreements with other Department of Commerce agencies are unclear and have not been carefully managed.
• There is a knowledge gap between the staff of the contractor that designed BTOP's software systems and the NTIA staff who must maintain the systems.
• NTIA does not have a robust means for tracking employee training and development.
• While NTIA has created new manuals and guidance to help employees and grantees understand BTOP, several of the manuals lack important details about policies and procedures.
• Some aspects of award monitoring are not being completed promptly or efficiently.

The Inspector General recommends that NTIA:

• manage the future lack of funding for BTOP by developing alternative approaches to monitoring and oversight, and revising manuals and documentation accordingly; and
• ensure that agreements with other agencies, manuals and guidance, training and development, and monitoring procedures are clearly documented and fully adhered to.