Service Providers: Are Your E-rate SPACs Updated?
~ BEARs and SPIFs Won't Be Processed Until SPAC Updated ~
Message Posted March 30, 2005
A little more than a year ago, the SLD initiated a new procedure that
prevents the approval of any invoice (BEAR or SPIF) associated with a vendor
that has not filed a Service Provider Annual Certification form (“SPAC” or
Form 473) for the funding year in question. As the SLD invoicing department
begins to review the invoice, they first check to see if the service
provider listed on the form has a SPAC filed for that particular funding
year. If they don't, they will and have been contacting the applicants to
indicate that until the provider files this form, they cannot process the BEAR.
Essentially what this has done is to transfer the penalty for not filing
SPACs to the vendors’ customers, the E-rate applicants. Apparently, there
are numerous BEARs hung up in invoicing because their vendors have not yet
filed their SPACs. So my question to every vendor who reads this message...
Do you have a SPAC on file for funding years 2003, 2004, and 2005 with the
SLD? If you're not sure, here's how to check.
Go to the SLD's website: www.sl.universalservice.org.
Under the 'Tools' on the left toolbar, select "SPIN Search."
Enter your company's SPIN and select "Next."
The results for your SPIN will be displayed on the screen. In the last
column to the far right, it will show each year that a SPAC has been filed.
A SPAC must be filed for each funding year for which you have FRNs pending.
For example, if you have 2004, but not 2003 in the column, the SLD will not
process any invoices associated with Funding Year 2003 (Year 6) until the
SPAC has been filed.
If you need to file a SPAC for a particular funding year, here's how:
Go to the SLD's website: www.sl.universalservice.org.
On the left toolbar at the bottom of the page, select "Service Provider
Forms" (the last possible link).
Then select "Form 473." Complete this form and mail to the SLD.
If you find that your company's E-rate contact information is not accurate
on the SPIN search results page, you must update this using a separate form,
the Form 498. This is a very easy form to file and can be retrieved from
the Service Provide Forms area of the SLD website. Block 11 is the block
which contains the information that appears on the SPIN search results page.
If you have any questions, please contact me at jtschell@comcast.net.
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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