Telecommunications: FCC Does Not Know if All Required Fees Are Collected
RCED-99-216
Published: Aug 31, 1999. Publicly Released: Oct 01, 1999.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the effectiveness of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) fee collection activities, focusing on: (1) FCC's controls for ensuring that required regulatory and application fees are paid; and (2) the extent to which FCC is collecting the civil monetary penalties resulting from its enforcement actions against entities that have violated its regulations.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Communications Commission | To better ensure that FCC collects appropriate regulatory and application fees and accurately tracks the status of civil monetary penalty assessments and collections, the Chairman, FCC, should direct FCC's Managing Director and Bureau Chiefs to develop and implement a business plan and procedures for routinely using the information available to FCC to identify, to the extent possible, entities that have not paid required regulatory fees and to collect the amounts they owe. This plan should include specific performance goals and measures consistent with the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act. |
FCC has developed an agency-wide business plan which calls on all FCC Bureaus to use available information to ensure the collection of all applicable fees. The plan includes specific goals for collecting additional fees from entities that have not previously paid or paid the wrong amount.
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| Federal Communications Commission | To better ensure that FCC collects appropriate regulatory and application fees and accurately tracks the status of civil monetary penalty assessments and collections, the Chairman, FCC, should direct FCC's Managing Director and Bureau Chiefs to develop and implement written procedures adequate to ensure that the required application fee has been paid before an application is approved. |
All FCC bureaus and offices have developed and implemented written procedures detailing the steps they take to verify that an application fee is paid prior to authorization of the application. These procedures have been compiled by FCC's Managing Director and provided to FCC's Office of Inspector General.
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| Federal Communications Commission | To better ensure that FCC collects appropriate regulatory and application fees and accurately tracks the status of civil monetary penalty assessments and collections, the Chairman, FCC, should direct FCC's Managing Director and Bureau Chiefs to conduct an audit of FCC's data on the status of civil monetary penalties to correct any data errors and internal control weaknesses that may have led to errors before incorporating these data into FCC's planned new financial system. |
FCC hired an outside auditor, Ernst & Young (E&Y), to examine its civil monetary penalty data. According to its February 2001 report, E&Y examined a judgmental sample of 37 penalties. Of the $7.3 million assessed in those cases, $7.1 million was properly recorded in FCC's system. E&Y made several recommendations to further improve the accuracy of FCC's data.
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Topics
Data integrityFeesFines (penalties)Government collectionsInternal controlsRegulatory agenciesDatabasesDatabase management systemsTelecommunicationsRadio