Govt. Review Of Radio Project Finds Faults

On the heels of complaints by several public safety agencies, the federal government has completed a review of a grant-funded wireless project for San Francisco region public safety agencies, and has found several major issues, including misrepresentations of facts to support the grant. The Inspector General’s office of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) says the issues may not require termination of the grant, but do provide lessons for improved administration of future DOC public safety wireless grant projects. The issues date to 2009 when Congress appropriated funds to build urban area public safety radio network, including one to connect hundreds of agencies in the San Francisco region. But the BayWeb project generated controversy among participating agencies when the federal grant was given directly to Motorola instead of being put out for bids. The city of San Jose requested an investigation in 2010, and a May 2011 report recommended several improvements to the grant program. Now the IG has issued a 13-page follow-up report that documents specific BayWeb problems: defects in the grant application, misstatements on the application about grant governance, misrepresentation of the project’s readiness and authority to use the assigned 700 MHz spectrum, and a flawed vendor selection process. The IG recommended no punitive actions, but rather closer scrutiny and control of the grant process. Download (pdf) the DOC report here. Update: The Department of Commerce submitted a response to the Inspector General’s office, calling the radio project “cutting edge” and “challenging to implement.” The DOC said, “The governance framework related to interoperable networks is a risk element,” and generally challenged the IG’s conclusions. Download (pdf) the DOC response here.