Rate-of-return carriers should only need to seek recovery of univ...
Rate-of-return carriers should only need to seek recovery of universal service audit costs from the federal government, said state members of the Joint Board on Jurisdictional Separations. In reply comments Tuesday, they backed a petition by the National Telecommunications…
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Cooperative Association (CD April 22 p4) that would assign all federal Universal Service Fund costs to interstate jurisdiction. “The audit costs involved are incurred to assist in the review of the function of the federal USF program and as such should appropriately be assigned to the interstate jurisdiction,” the state members said: “A significant, if not primary, purpose for the audits is to ensure the reasonableness of federal USF surcharges and to detect waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funding.” They rejected comments by Verizon saying costs should remain divided between intrastate and interstate jurisdictions. States may benefit from federal USF subsidies, but “it does not necessarily follow that States benefit from the federal audits,” they said. The “main beneficiaries” are the FCC, interstate ratepayers and the Universal Service Administrative Co., they said. States “have no control over whether federal audits are conducted, the scope of the audits, the audit costs, the selection of the auditor, or the federal universal service disbursement mechanisms that are being audited.”