§  54.715   Administrative expenses of the Administrator.

   (a) The annual administrative expenses of the Administrator should be
   commensurate with the administrative expenses of programs of similar
   size, with the exception of the salary levels for officers and
   employees of the Administrator described in paragraph (b) of this
   section. The annual administrative expenses may include, but are not
   limited to, salaries of officers and operations personnel, the costs of
   borrowing funds, equipment costs, operating expenses, directors'
   expenses, and costs associated with auditing contributors of support
   recipients.

   (b) All officers and employees of the Administrator may be compensated
   at an annual rate of pay, including any non-regular payments, bonuses,
   or other compensation, in an amount not to exceed the rate of basic pay
   in effect for Level I of the Executive Schedule under 5 U.S.C. 5312.

   Note to paragraph (b): The compensation to be included when calculating
   whether an employee's rate of pay exceeds Level I of the Executive
   Schedule does not include life insurance benefits, retirement benefits
   (including payments to 401(k) plans), health insurance benefits, or
   other similar benefits, provided that any such benefits are reasonably
   comparable to benefits that are provided to employees of the federal
   government.

   (c) The Administrator shall submit to the Commission projected
   quarterly budgets at least sixty (60) days prior to the start of every
   quarter. The Commission must approve the projected quarterly budgets
   before the Administrator disburses funds under the federal universal
   service support mechanisms. The administrative expenses incurred by the
   Administrator in connection with the schools and libraries support
   mechanism, the rural health care support mechanism, the high cost
   support mechanism, the low income support mechanism, the interstate
   access universal service support mechanism, and the interstate common
   line support mechanism shall be deducted from the annual funding of
   each respective support mechanism. The expenses deducted from the
   annual funding for each support mechanism also shall include the
   Administrator's joint and common costs allocated to each support
   mechanism pursuant to the cost allocation manual filed by the
   Administrator under § 64.903 of this chapter.

   [ 63 FR 70576 , Dec. 21, 1998, as amended at  65 FR 38690 , June 21, 2000;
    65 FR 57739 , Sept. 26, 2000;  66 FR 59728 , Nov. 30, 2001;  69 FR 5719 ,
   Feb. 6, 2004]