March 2003 Announcements

Please click on the topic below to view the most recent announcements:

The Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Schools & Libraries (USAC) has created a Task Force on the Prevention of Waste, Fraud and Abuse. This Task Force will identify areas where improvements can be made in the support mechanism and in outreach and training and will recommend specific actions to combat potential waste, fraud and abuse by both service providers and applicants.

The Task Force will be composed of 14 members of the applicant and service provider communities. The members include representatives from public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools, libraries, state telecommunications networks, and providers of service in all three categories of services eligible under the support mechanism — Telecommunications Services, Internet Access, and Internal Connections.

Members of the Task Force will meet to review every aspect of the E-rate program where waste, fraud and abuse can occur — including the application process, application review and funding commitment, and invoicing. They will also review publicly available documents to determine what changes could be made to help prevent waste, fraud and abuse.

The Task Force will produce a final report to USAC in early summer summarizing its recommendations.

The SLD will make Funding Year 2002 funding commitments on Internal Connections requests down to 81% beginning with Wave 26. Wave 26 Funding Commitment Decision Letters will be issued on April 7, 2003.

The SLD has been funding Internal Connections requests with discount percentages of 90% and denying such requests with discount percentages below 80%, based on estimated fundable requests and funds available for this funding year. There has been uncertainty with respect to such requests with discount percentages of 80% to 89%. Many applicants with Internal Connections requests in this range have received FCDLs with a classification of "As yet unfunded" for these FRNs. Applicants who have received such FCDLs for requests with discount percentages of from 81% to 89% will get new FCDLs in Wave 26 showing commitments for these requests.

At this time, there is no determination about the ability to fund Internal Connections requests at 80%.

Applicants can now begin a Form 486 online, exit the uncompleted form, and then return later to complete and submit the form using new “Save” and “Retrieve” functions.

You can access the online PDF version of the Form 486 from the Apply Online & View Forms page of this web site by clicking on the “Form 486 PDF” button. “Save” and “Retrieve” buttons now appear at the bottom of each page of the online Form 486. After you complete a page, you can click the “Save” button to save your work. A popup box then appears with your Form 486 Application Number and Security Code. Please make a note of these numbers, as you will need them to return to your form. This reminder box will appear each time you click “Save.”

To retrieve an incomplete online Form 486, go to the Apply Online & View Forms and do the following:

• Click on the “Form 486 PDF” button. You may see some data that you entered in a previous session.
• Scroll to the bottom of page 1 of the form and click “New” to clear any old form data that might be stored on your computer.
• Click the “Retrieve” button and enter your Form 486 Application Number and Security Code. The system will then retrieve the stored data associated with your incomplete form.

NOTE: You can retrieve a Form 486 at any time using this function, but you can only edit the form if you are filing online but have not yet clicked on the “Submit” button on the last page of the online form.

Following is a list of the documents or pages that have changed on this web site since the last posting on updates:

A new document, Commitment Adjustment (COMAD), has been added to the Reference Area. This documents provides useful information about adjustments the SLD must make to funding commitments when it discovers that funds were committed in error.

The sample document E-RATE SELECTIVE REVIEW INFORMATION REQUEST has been updated for Funding Year 2003. This document is used by Program Integrity Assurance as part of its Selective Review process. It can also be accessed from the Form 471 Reminders posted in the Reference Area.

The status descriptions for Forms 471 have been standardized in the 471 Display tool and the Application Status tool. Both tools can be accessed from the Apply Online & View Forms area of this web site. The descriptions have also been simplified. The date of the Receipt Acknowledgment Letter (RAL) has been removed as a status description, but this date now appears at the top of each application displayed using the 471 Display Tool.