The United States Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the United States Department of Interior (“DOI”) issued a July 2019 report titled:
The NPS Needs to Improve Management of Commercial Cellular Facilities’ Right-of-Way Permits and Revenues (“Report”)
The OIG Report contains the evaluation of the DOI National Park Service’s (“NPS”) management of commercial cellular facilities on United States property.
OIG assessed the NPS right-of-way permitting process along with how revenues for commercial cellular are both collected and accounted for. Stated differently, the objective of the evaluation was to determine:
- Whether national parks receive fair market value for commercial cellular facilities, and whether revenues are properly collected and accounted for by the NPS
- Whether national parks review and make determinations about commercial cellular facilities on NPS land in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies
The OIG Report notes that the NPS provides cellular service to park visitors and NPS employees via commercial cellular facilities. Such facilities are sometimes located on NPS land. Also noted is that since 1996 the facilities are authorized by right-of-way permits issued by the NPS. The companies own the cellular equipment, and the right-of-way permit allows them to operate it.
OIG concludes that the NPS could:
- Improve its management of the permitting process
- Collect additional revenue
- Recover costs
- Increase compliance by NPS policy by:
- Preparing and issuing accurate and timely bills for collections to right-of-way permit holders
- Document employee time and costs with right-of-way permits for cost recovery
- Completing and updating its cellular facilities inventory, including evaluating the appropriateness of currently unpermitted facilities
- Develop an action plan to ensure compliance with NPS policy
A copy of the OIG Report can be downloaded here.
