Sneak Preview: Performance Goals Sought for ReConnect Program

(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) The Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to develop performance goals specifically designed for its ReConnect Program to ensure that it is effectively providing broadband services to rural communities, in response to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report recommendation.

The ReConnect program, which began in 2018, provided about $4.4 billion in grants and loans through 2021 for the acquisition, construction and improvement of facilities and equipment to offer broadband service in rural areas to help close the gap when compared to urban jurisdictions. Other federal programs offered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) also make funding available for broadband infrastructure programs. USDA, FCC and NTIA have regular coordination meetings to discuss their respective broadband programs and share data.

GAO analyzed ReConnect award and application data from 2018 through 2021, and compared USDA’s performance documentation to leading performance assessment practices. It also evaluated the agency’s fraud risk management processes to determine if it followed GAO’s fraud risk framework.

GAO found that USDA combined ReConnect data from federal fiscal years (FY) 2018 to 2022 to support the following two USDA-wide performance goals for telecommunications subscribers: (1) to track how many projected new subscribers will result from USDA-funded telecommunications projects; and (2) to identify the percentage of private investment in USDA rural development projects. For FYs 2022 to 2026, the agency expects to use ReConnect data to support two other USDA agencywide goals: (1) to track the percentage of USDA rural development assistance going to distressed communities; and (2) to assess the percentage of geographic areas hard-hit by declines in coal production and consumption that are being served by USDA rural development programs.

While this data is to be used for agencywide goals, GAO determined that USDA has not identified performance goals that would define specific results it expects the ReConnect program to achieve. “Defining performance goals and measures at the program level is a leading practice that helps agencies determine whether and why a program is performing well or not,” according to the report. “In addition, information provided by performance goals and measures helps agencies make decisions about the programs they manage.”

(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)

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