FCC Moving To Resolve USF Accounting Issues, Agency's CFO Says

The FCC is addressing universal service accounting issues, Chief Financial Officer Mark Stephens said in the agency's FY 2015 Summary of Performance & Financial Information released Tuesday. An independent auditor in FY 2014 identified a "continuing material weakness in the control environment over USF budgetary accounting," Stephens said. He said that material weakness resulted from the USF budgetary activities of the Universal Service Administrative Co. "The accounting errors that the auditors noted above were corrected by USAC and the FCC and do not affect the Commission’s FY 2015 financial statements," Stephens said. "However, the auditors noted that corrections need to be made to USAC’s processes and internal controls to avoid these types of errors from recurring in the future. The FCC will work with USAC to ensure that USAC takes the proper corrective action to resolve these recommendations and strengthen its internal controls." He also said the FCC was "committed to remediating information technology control deficiencies" and was moving to address a "noncompliance" finding about the Debt Collection Improvement Act.