The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued the Department of Commerce a series of recommendations addressing FirstNet contract oversight with state officials and other stakeholders.
FirstNet has been tasked with establishing a nationwide broadband network for public safety officials, such as police officers and firefighters. Three years ago, FirstNet awarded AT&T a contract to deploy, operate, and maintain the network.
Since awarding the contract, the GAO noted, FirstNet has shared little to no information about contract oversight, leading to speculation about the extent of FirstNet’s oversight of AT&T, which could affect network users’ and stakeholders’ continued support of the program.
The GAO is recommending FirstNet’s Chief Executive Officer take steps to ensure the integrated master schedule for the program is developed and maintained under the best practices provided in GAO’s Schedule Assessment Guide; identify additional information about the program, including FirstNet’s oversight and monitoring activities, that can be shared with public-safety stakeholders and periodically communicate and report the information to them; share relevant portions of the accepted state-specific commitment reports with the states, as specified in the contract; and, in consultation with public-safety stakeholders and its contractor, as appropriate, identify and obtain periodic information or meaningful indicators on end-users’ satisfaction that would serve as a metric to gauge performance quality, including the effect of the FirstNet network and products on public-safety operations.
The GAO found FirstNet lacked a reliable master schedule to review communication with relevant stakeholders regarding contract oversight and meaningful information on end-users’ satisfaction to gauge performance quality.
The GAO said the scope of work involved analyzing FirstNet and AT&T documentation; assessing FirstNet’s oversight efforts against critical contract-oversight practices identified in federal regulations and other government, academic, and industry guidance; and assessing the program’s master schedule against GAO best practices.
GAO also interviewed FirstNet officials, and selected state, local, and tribal officials and first responders representing a variety of viewpoints.