GAO, Commerce Concerned About BTOP Oversight

Mark Goldstein, director of physical infrastructure issues for the Government Accountability Office, will testify at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on Feb 10. He'll say that GAO still has concerns about the government's oversight of its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program stimulus grant/loan program, a concern long shared by some legislators and lots of cable operators.

The Commerce Department, which is overseeing much of that program, shares that concern, but says it has a plan if Congress has the funds. Goldstein says risks to the program's success remain, including monitoring 553 projects that are "diverse in scale, scope, and technology" and funding that oversight since the recovery act funds ran out Sept. 30. But even with NTIA and RUS' contingency plans, which Goldstein said have been developed by both on the advice of GAO, his office "remains concerned about the oversight of the broadband programs. In particular, GAO believes the agencies, and especially NTIA, need to do more to ensure their oversight plans reflect current fiscal realities." For his part, NTIA witness Todd Zinser, Inspector General of the Commerce Department, called the broadband stimulus program "the largest and most complex" grant program NTIA has ever overseen, and agreed there were concerns at Commerce about the ability to oversee the program.