FCC RFP: Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) Schools and Libraries Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services

Notice ID: SL-25-034

The purpose of this Request for Proposal (“RFP”) is to acquire a qualified vendor to provide Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services.

The primary responsibilities and requirements of the selected Contractor are identified below.

Application Processing

The review of the FCC Form 471 applications received is known as the Program Integrity Assurance (“PIA”) review and is the largest work stream and most complex part of the ERate program to be handled by Contractor …

Reviews can include a four (4)-level review process. The first level of review is conducted by an initial reviewer.  The initial reviewer resolves all of the issues, documents findings, and makes a funding decision recommendation.  Next, a second reviewer with additional training and experience checks the work of the initial reviewer and signs off on the decisions.  The second reviewer can return the application to the initial reviewer for additional work if they determine that the procedures were not followed.  For the third level of review, the BPO’s quality assurance team selects a sample of applications to review to ensure that the initial and final reviews were done correctly.  For the fourth level of review, USAC independently selects applications for USAC quality assurance review.  If any issues are found during either of the third or fourth level of review, or at the final review, the applications are returned to the initial reviewer for more work. USAC, at its discretion, but in consultation with Contractor may also review a subset of applications in-house. USAC or USAC’s designated third party, may also conduct independent validations and verifications (“IV&Vs”) of Contractor reviewed applications in addition to its quality assurance work.

The PIA review process entails verifying information and reviewing documentation to ensure FCC Form 471 applications are compliant with FCC rules for the E-Rate Program.  Once the PIA review is complete, USAC issues a Funding Commitment Decision Letter (“FCDL”).  FCDLs are issued in “waves,” or groups of commitments.  Waves are run through USAC’s IT systems and require a distinct series of checks and balances to ensure that applications are committed in compliance with program rules. Contractor will be responsible for processing the following:

• PIA Application Review: All applications undergo this review which checks for compliance with program rules including eligibility of entities, discount rate, eligibility of services, competitive bidding, posting of the FCC Form 470, Red Light check,1 and a variety of other issues.
• PIA Service Review: The purpose of the “PIA Service Review” is to determine if the requested services are eligible in accordance with program rules.  Some FCC Form 471 applications only require this service eligibility review.
• PIA Highly Complex Application Reviews: FCC Form 471 applications for (i) consortia and (ii) non-consortium applications that have three hundred one (301) or more exceptions are considered “Highly Complex Reviews.”  These Highly Complex Reviews will be conducted by a team of highly skilled and experienced reviewers to process these applications in a timely manner …

Read more here.

🔊 Listen to Story