Ready, Fire, Aim: GAO Questions Timing of Broadband Stimulus Grants
Meinan Goto /
As if the Administration’s stimulus program didn’t have enough problems, the Government Accountability Office has now issued a report raising concerns on the handling of $7.2 billion in broadband communications grants warning the programs “present risks of waste, fraud and abuse“.
The agencies – the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service were charged with awarding grants to help build out broadband Internet infrastructure, such as bringing wireless broadband connectivity to 41 Minneapolis public housing high-rises. But the complete mapping data on where investment is needed won’t be available until March 2010. This lack of data, the GAO warns, combined with staffing challenges and a deadline of September 2010 to award the grants, “may pose risks to the thoroughness of the application evaluation process.”