ITU Needs Leadership, Managerial Changes, O'Rielly Says

In an opinion piece in The Hill Wednesday, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly wrote that the ITU is suffering from mission creep and staffing problems, and a failure to take seriously the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin as director of its Telecommunication Development Bureau "would be a grave mistake" and could boost the case of those who want the U.S. to leave the ITU or limit its financial support. O'Rielly said many ITU member states are trying to make it a global regulator of new technologies, such as the internet, that are outside its core mission or jurisdiction. A possible fix would be allocating a minimum of 80 percent of all ITU spending or events to spectrum policies, he said. O'Rielly also said there's too little oversight of staffers, leading to them picking the projects to pursue, hiring technical consultants and framing debates, and there needs to be better procedural safeguards and more detailed budgeting information. He also said more decisions should be made by member states rather than on a delegated basis. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and NTIA Administrator David Redl endorsed Bogdan-Martin (see 1803130029).