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State broadband director tells committee BEAD payments are phased and certified on-site
Summary
State broadband director said BEAD providers are paid only after phased construction is certified on-site and that audits occur regularly; a legislator pressed for details on audit frequency and remedies if providers fail to meet obligations.
Representative Landstrom asked how the state ensures BEAD funds are spent where intended and what audit backup exists for the second-tranche awards.
Glenn Howie, the state's broadband director, answered that the BEAD awards are federal dollars and the program is audited annually depending on the funding bucket. "In this program, providers are paid as actions are completed and as construction is completed," Howie said. "We have a professional engineering firm that will go out on-site, do a site visit, certify that construction has been completed in phases. And as that construction takes place and is certified to our office, then payments are released to the provider." He added the Department of Commerce expects continued federal audits and that if a provider fails to perform the state would not have released payments and would next consider the second-ranked applicant from the application process.
Committee members accepted the D items, which include $176,000,000 in spending authority for the BEAD second tranche covering 27,000 locations, and asked staff to bring additional documentation as needed.
The record shows members sought assurance that physical verification and federal audit processes protect taxpayer funding for the broadband deployments.
