FirstNet and Members of Congress Respond to Report that Agency Must Strengthen Financial Disclosures

December 9, 2014 – FirstNet, the national public safety wireless network for first responders, responded on Monday to a report from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Inspector General, criticizing the agency’s procedures for monitoring and disclosing conflicts of interest.

The report, dated Friday, found that board members of the First Responder Network Authority did not file timely public financial disclosure reports, and that that the board’s procedures for monitoring potential conflicts needed improvement.

House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., responded to the report: “Unfortunately, the Inspector General’s report confirms what we have suspected and long feared – that FirstNet had been operating without proper processes and with disregard for laws that guard against impropriety.”

Sue Swenson, chair of the FirstNet board, said that the report “makes a number of recommendations regarding improving guidance and processes…. We concur with these recommendations, many of which have already been implemented.”

The Inspector General’s report is available at http://www.oig.doc.gov/Pages/FirstNet-Must-Strengthen-Management-of-Financial-Disclosures-and-Monitoring-of-Contracts.aspx