The FCC granted 12 applicant friendly appeals concerning whether an applicant had a valid RFP or whether a competitive bidding violation occurred by having a service provider listed as the contact person on the Form 470. The FCC has given USAC 90 days to process these appeals and estimates that these appeals involve approximately $8.9 million.
The FCC remanded one case back to the SLD for further inquiry into whether an improper relationship between the service provider and the applicant occurred. The FCC denied one appeal because the service provider listed on the Form 470 was, in fact, also involved in the competitive bidding process. The FCC concluded,
"…the contact person exerts great influence over an applicant's competitive bidding process by controlling the dissemination of information regarding the services requested. When an applicant gives that capability to an entity that also participates in the competitive bidding process as a prospective service provider, the applicant impairs its ability to hold a fair and open competitive bidding process…"
View the Approach Learning and Assessment Center FCC Decision
