Advocates Seek Accountability in Expenditure of Broadband Stimulus Funds

At the final day of a six-day public forum about the federal government's $7.2 billion broadband stimulus funding on Tuesday morning, the discussion made a sharp turn toward a focus on oversight and post-award compliance. Beth McConnell, executive director of the Media and Democracy Coalition, a coalition of public interest media advocacy groups in the states and in Washington, said there was need to "ensure grantees are accountable to the congressional intent in the Recovery Act" and that "grantees are complying with the rules and agreements." "To address both, we need clear and concrete objectives in grant contracts, strong rules to hold them to, and good data to evaluate," she said. Companies should not be able to evade these conditions by selling their contracts, she said. Additionally, said McConnell, all funded projects should contain a component that will measurably increase adoption. She also said that the NTIA and RUS "should require that all grantees report their network management practices." She also said both NTIA and RUS should require that grantees report the actual speeds delivered, prices paid by customers, and adoption of services. McConnell also said that funds should not be awarded to any entity that purports to map broadband services yet withhold critical information. Instead, agencies should consider grantee reporting a critical opportunity to gather data to inform broadband data-collection and mapping, and that consideration should be given to robust post-grant assessment of the impact of projects.