{"id":32284,"date":"2020-03-07T01:59:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T01:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e-ratepaorg.local\/?p=32284"},"modified":"2020-03-10T02:02:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T02:02:31","slug":"navigating-the-form-471-pia-review-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=32284","title":{"rendered":"Navigating the Form 471 PIA Review Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 7, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

~62% of submitted FRNs are already in PIA review ~
\n<\/strong>
\nThe Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) process is a detailed USAC review of each Form 471 to determine whether the products and services requested are eligible for E-rate funding, whether your requested discount rate is valid, whether you have stayed within your Category 2 budget, and whether you are an eligible entity.\u00a0 This year we continue to see a major emphasis on substantiation of requested dollar amounts, including taxes.\u00a0 All PIA inquiries are done in EPC, and all applicant responses to these inquiries must be submitted via EPC.<\/p>\n

The PIA review process will be identical to last year, which is that the Form 471 contact will receive an e-mail indicating that a PIA reviewer has questions related to the application.\u00a0 The e-mail will contain a link to the actual PIA inquiry(s) in EPC (you must be logged-in to EPC to see it).\u00a0 To see the questions, click on “Respond to Inquiries” at the top right corner of the page, which will then turn the Inquiry Name into an active blue hyperlink.\u00a0 Click on the hyperlink and the list of questions will appear.\u00a0 You must respond to all of the questions in an inquiry at the same time. \u00a0If a question is not applicable, but the text box will not allow you to proceed without an answer, simply list N\/A.<\/p>\n

If you are unclear about the questions being asked, you may e-mail the PIA reviewer to request clarifications.\u00a0 Use the e-mail address that was listed on the original PIA reviewer\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

New for FY 2020:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0On your EPC Landing Page, there is now a \u201cPending Inquiries<\/strong>\u201d section at the top of the page.\u00a0 All \u201cusers\u201d for the organization will see and can respond to all inquiries, even if they are not the contact for that form.\u00a0 This is a great feature so non-Form 471 contacts can see the questions that are being asked of other users within their organization, including consultants.<\/p>\n

Deadline to Reply:\u00a0 These are serious inquires that must be addressed in a timely fashion. \u00a0PIA inquiries typically provide\u00a015-day deadlines for responses but I encourage you to respond as soon as you receive the e-mail.\u00a0 The sooner you respond, the sooner you’ll receive your E-rate FCDL. \u00a0If you haven\u2019t responded to the PIA inquiry within 7 days of the initial request,\u00a0PIA will send you a reminder.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t responded after 15 days, USAC may act on the information they already have to make a funding decision (which typically means denial).<\/p>\n

Need an Extension?\u00a0You can request a 7-day extension of the original deadline if you need more time. \u00a0To do so, access your PIA Inquiry in EPC, choose\u00a0Related Actions<\/strong>, then\u00a0Request Extension<\/strong>. \u00a0The first extension request will be automatically granted.\u00a0 If you still need more time, you may request an additional extension, but you must have a\u00a0really<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0good reason for needing an extension.<\/p>\n

A guide to the EPC-based PIA review process, including screenshots of the EPC PIA inquiry pages, is attached.\u00a0 Slide 13 of the guide also shows where to find the current status of your Form 471 application. \u00a0Already, 235 FRNs are in \u201cWave Ready\u201d status! The first funding wave is expected to be released around the end of April, with funding waves coming each week thereafter.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions about your PIA inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact me at\u00a0jtschell@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

— Julie<\/p>\n

\"erateflowchart\"<\/p>\n

Julie Tritt Schell<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania E-rate Coordinator
\n717-730-7133 – o
\njtschell@comcast.net<\/a>
\nwww.e-ratepa.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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March 7, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-listserve_archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}