Upcoming E-Rate Dates:
| October 12 |
Nomination deadline for six USAC Board members including one school representative (see our newsletter of August 17th). |
| October 16 |
Second Form 471 application window for FY 2020 closes at 11:59 p.m. EDT. |
| October 22 |
First in a series of interactive E-rate training sessions conducted by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (“SETDA”). For a full schedule and registration details, see E-Rate Training Series: Ask the State Experts. |
Service Provider Audits:
Each year, USAC conducts a series of audits — both random and directed — on E-rate applicants and service providers. When service providers are audited, questions are typically directed to the vendors’ clients as well to confirm services provided, discounts given, and non-discounted payments made. Generally these are straight-forward requests that can be easily answered. In one recent case, applicants were asked for the following information concerning FY 2017 funding:
- Please provide a description of the services that you received under this FRN.
- Were the services that you received consistent with those that the service provider billed? If not, please explain.
- Were the services that you received consistent with your contract with the service provider? If not, please explain.
- Were any of the services that you received under this contract ineligible for E-rate support? If so, please describe.
- Please provide your Funding Year 2017 discount percentage for this FRN.
- Did the service provider pay you for SLP reimbursements by check or by crediting your service bill?
- Please list the receipt dates and amounts of all payments you received under this FRN.
- Have you made all payments to the service provider for the non-discounted portion of the service bills?
Streamlined BEAR Processing, cont.:
As reported in our previous newsletter, USAC's Schools and Libraries News Brief of October 2, 2020 indicated that USAC was modifying its invoice review system so that multi-line item BEARs will henceforth be processed on a line-by-line basis. This means that portions of some BEARs can be paid out more quickly while other line items are still being reviewed. The News Brief provided an example of a line status table that will be included in BEAR Notification Letters mailed to applicants. As shown in the example below, line status data will also be provided in Block 2 of the online BEAR Invoice report.
