A telecom relay services provider overstated expenses on annual r...
A telecom relay services provider overstated expenses on annual reports to the National Exchange Carrier Association, said an audit commissioned by the FCC Inspector General. The reports are used to determine the amount of subsidies TRS providers get monthly…
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through the TRS Fund administered by NECA. Hands On Video Relay Services overstated expenses by about $475,000 -- 10 percent of total actual costs -- for seven line items that were investigated in the VRS provider’s 2005 Relay Service Data Request form, said auditor KPMG. In addition, HOVRS overstated by about $850,000 -- 25 percent of total actual costs -- on six line items in the 2004 RSDR, said KPMG. And HOVRS couldn’t substantiate expenses reflected on their 2003 and 2004 RSDRs, the auditor said. HOVRS disagreed with a draft of the audit. The draft audit “appears to be based upon certain misunderstandings of HOVRS’s accounting system, the process for the preparation of the annual report to NECA and the NECA rate calculation methodology,” the VRS provider said. The audit’s finding that HOVRS in 2005 reported more minutes to NECA than it documented is “incorrect,” failing to “account for the VRS minutes that HOVRS provided to AT&T as a subcontractor to AT&T,” it said: “When those minutes are accounted for there is no discrepancy.” FCC IG Kent Nilsson sent the final report to the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau on March 31. HOVRS didn’t return a request for comment.