Developments in the telecommunications industry continue to create issues that span the jurisdiction of the FCC’s several bureaus, but a lack of written procedures for ensuring that inter-bureau collaboration and communication occurs has resulted in confusion over who is responsible for handling certain issues, GAO has said.
In addition, the lack of written procedures has allowed various chairmen to determine the extent to which inter-bureau collaboration and communication occurs, leading to instances in which FCC’s final analyses lacked input from all relevant staff, according to GAO-10-79.
It said stakeholders have expressed concern regarding the chairman’s ability to influence the agency’s engineering and strategic planning offices, which the agency says it uses to address crosscutting issues – many of which have emerged with the development of broadband technologies.
The report also raised concerns with the quality of the commission’s decisions since it lacks internal policies regarding access to staff analyses, which some commissioners have restricted.
