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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

View Assessment Details

Rural Development Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program

The Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service provides direct loans and loan guarantees to rural companies for the improvement and expansion of broadband in rural areas.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • Though Rural Utilities Service finalized long-term and annual performance measures, baselines and targets in 2006, only minimal data is available to determine performance. For example, one long-term measure is the percent of rural households subscribing to broadband.
  • The Broadband program has a clear purpose, to provide loans for broadband, and good program management. This results in increasing the provision of broadband services to rural residents.
  • The program is flawed as seen by the under utilization of two loan types. Though there are still rural areas that do not have broadband, neither the 4% nor guaranteed loan types are utilized by borrowers.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Reviewing program operations and community/constituent/borrower needs to identify program improvements to increase program efficiency and demand for under utilized loan types.
  • Implementing a process for conducting periodic independent reviews that assess the program's performance.
  • Developing a method to collect cost information to allow tracking of all direct and indirect costs and to develop baselines and targets for the efficiency measure cost per loan.

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