USF – Fails to collect levies; amounts owing to the USF increased 44% from $81.7 million (April 2012) to $117.8 million (March 2015)

Recommendation

1. The USF should develop and implement strategies to improve the collection of the universal service levy from carriers. To this end, an appropriate internal control mechanism should be put in place to ensure that the Fund receives the requisite monthly reports in a timely manner.
Furthermore, robust communication must be initiated with telecommunication carriers to ensure that traffic information and levy payments are made as prescribed by the
Telecommunications Act and the Ministerial Order.
2. The USF should ensure that a structured delinquency management system is put in place. This should form part of an entity-wide integrated risk management framework that would also incorporate the risk of revenue loss.
3. USF should develop and implement a comprehensive project management framework to guide its monitoring and evaluation activities. The Fund should also aggressively enforce the requirement for submission of progress and post disbursement reports by the project beneficiaries to assist with the evaluation as to whether the objectives are being attained.

JAMP Update

JAMP received letter dated February 12, 2018, referencing letters to (name of carrier redacted) sent on December 12, 2017 and January 19, 2018. advising that a 5-day deadline (January 26) had passed and of failure to remit levy.
“Our records reflect that 72% of our receivables is now past due, of which 43.77% or $108,210,997.33 is currently 60 days and over.

“We hereby formally demand that you remit to the USF the outstanding $108,210,997.33 by Monday, February 19, 2018; failing which, this matter will be addressed directly to the Office of Utilities Regulation for their intervention, without any further notice to you”.

JAMP wrote to the Ministry/USF asking for additional support beyond one letter.

The Universal Service Fund in a letter dated October 21, 2020 informed JAMP of the outstanding levies with a detailed breakdown (see below).

We were advised that “The Fund has been in consistent communication with Digicel and Cable & Wireless to ensure better management of aged balances and to mitigate against the risk of bad debts. In addition, a Traffic Report Payment Form has been developed and implemented to track the collection and payment of levy by Cable and Wireless and Digicel over to USF on a timely basis. This initiative is new, and we are currently monitoring same to ensure the expected outcome is realized. This initiative came into effect in July 2020. This is in addition to the traffic report which details minutes of incoming international calls and monetary value of minutes.”

Additionally, we told that for the period ending September 30, 2020 “…there is no report owing to the Fund from the carriers.”

ATI Responses

• USF Non-collection of Levy – Detailed Response