Records recently released from USAC show that nearly half of the SLD’s budget for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 is dedicated to supporting the ongoing audits of applicants which are being performed by third party accounting firms. Over $15 million is budgeted to provide firms with the necessary documentation to perform beneficiary audits of USF disbursements made to discount services provided under the E-rate program.
The FCC Office of Inspector General (OIG) has not requested any additional funding for audits in 2010, but the OIG does have $36.7 million which was previously authorized by Congress to spend on audits and USF oversight into 2010.
Below is the SLD’s budget for the third quarter of fiscal 2009:
