Eighteen months after allegations of poor management practices were made by a FirstNet board member, a federal U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) investigation has confirmed there was poor and lax record-keeping for filing legally-required conflict of interest forms, and poor management of contract awards. In a report issued today, the DOC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said some FirstNet employees simply failed to file forms detailing their financial background, but that others manipulated work records to avoid being required to file the reports. In response to numerous requests for documents to support the investigation, the OIG said FirstNet staffers frequently couldn’t find records, or determined that they now don’t exist. Complaints about FirstNet’s operation were first made by board member Story County (Ia.) sheriff Paul Fitzgerald in April 2013. He complained that members were meeting informally and decided matters, and weren’t sharing FirstNet financial and hiring documents. A specially-formed FirstNet committee concluded the transparency complaint was unfounded, but left other issues to an OIG investigation. Now the OIG says board members didn’t file timely public financial disclosure reports, and procedures for monitoring potential conflicts of interest need improvement.
None of the FirstNet employees who failed to file financial forms was mentioned by name, and the OIG report doesn’t state if any criminal laws were broken.
The OIG did say that, “FirstNet contracting practices lacked transparent award competition, sufficient oversight of hiring, adequate monitoring, and procedures to prevent payment of erroneous costs.” The OIG also confirmed that FirstNet’s confidential and public disclosure monitoring procedures were inadequate. In a statement, FirstNet board chair attributed the group’s problems to “some administrative missteps…made in the early days,” and that steps have been taken to address them. Download (pdf) the entire OIG report for more details of the OIG investigation, and a comprehensive response to the report by FirstNet.
In a statement in response to the OIG report, FirstNet chair Sue Swenson said:
Today, we received the Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) audit report on the Department’s administration of FirstNet’s ethics program and procurement of contractor support in the early days of our operations. The report makes a number of recommendations regarding improving guidance and processes around the Department’s ethics program and contracting on behalf of FirstNet. We concur with these recommendations, many of which have already been implemented.
FirstNet is a unique organization, charged with a significant task—to build the first-ever broadband network for the nation’s public safety community. No organization has accomplished what we have set out to do. We acknowledge some administrative missteps were made in the early days, and we have taken and will continue to take steps to address them.
I am confident that the FirstNet of today is on the right path forward for these and many other reasons.
Both the Department and FirstNet have instituted a comprehensive and effective ethics program and are taking the appropriate measures to help ensure first-rate procurement practices to assist in FirstNet’s mission. This includes the ongoing expansion of FirstNet’s formal compliance program to supplement existing Commerce Department requirements. We also have learned lessons from the early procurements and are now applying these experiences going forward to further improve.
Further, the organization has undergone significant change in the past year, including the institution of an experienced management team, dedicated legal counsel, and more than 80 employees. Our leadership team and full-time, dedicated staff are implementing a Strategic Program Roadmap to lead us down the path of success.
We are on track with the milestones that we outlined in the Roadmap and have also cultivated important partnerships with the future users of the network—the public safety community. We are consulting with the states, territories, and tribal nations on how to build the network. In Fiscal Year 2014, we participated in nearly 100 events across the country that connected us to thousands of firefighters, law enforcement officials, emergency medical providers, and public safety officials from all levels of government.
We understand the unique risks that FirstNet faces in its mission to deploy the nation’s first public safety broadband network, and we will continue to take the steps necessary to ensure we remain committed to the highest level of transparency, integrity, ethics, and ongoing compliance as we move forward.
I would like to thank the public safety community for its patience and critical support during this time. FirstNet has moved quickly to lay the necessary foundations of your network and our organization. Working together, we have come a long way in 2014, and I am looking forward to an even more productive 2015 and beyond.
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