The state of Virginia spent almost $1 million on unused wireless phones for its employees during a recent six-month period, according to a study from the state’s auditor of public accounts.
The state paid AT&T, Verizon and other wireless providers roughly $962,000 from July to December 2009 for more than 4,500 phones that clocked zero minutes of use per month, according to the auditor’s report.
The unused phones comprised nearly 40 percent of all the employee cell phones managed by the state’s information technologies agency and accounted for roughly 30 percent of the state’s six-month, taxpayer-funded $3.1 million wireless phone bill.
Virginia also spent about $75,000 per month in overage charges — penalties for exceeding the phone’s allowance of minutes — on BlackBerrys and other cell phones during the same period, according to the auditor’s report.
“The problem we have is there are no guidelines,” said Walter Kucharski, Virginia’s auditor of public accounts.
Kucharski’s office concluded the commonwealth “does not have up to date and comprehensive statewide policies, procedures, and guidance over the management and usage of its telecommunications devices.”
Kucharski said many of the neglected cell phones — about 1,000 of the roughly 4,500 phones averaging zero minutes of use — are carried by state police officers or correction department workers who don’t regularly use cell phones but need access to them in emergencies.
He said in those cases the unused phones were explainable, but said there were still opportunities to establish cost-saving measures.
“With improved management and oversight, the commonwealth has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in wireless expenses,” the auditor’s report said.
Sam Nixon, Virginia’s chief information officer and head of the state’s information technologies agency, said he agreed the state needed to establish more rigorous guidelines.
“We want to make certain that these phones are being used properly. And in the interest of saving taxpayer money, we want to be as frugal as we possibly can be,” he said.
Nixon said he had received direction from Gov. Bob McDonnell to revise the agency’s guidelines on cell phone use. Neither McDonnell nor Nixon was in office during the period of the auditor’s investigation.
Nixon’s agency is responsible for the management of the state’s wireless contracts, but he said it’s up to each of the state’s departments to manage its employees’ cell phone use.
“The decision to purchase a wireless device, whether it’s a phone or a BlackBerry or a [wireless Internet] card, is up to the individual agency,” Nixon said. “And it’s the individual agency’s job to know one, whether or not a person should have a cell phone, and two, whether they’re using it properly.”
The departments of transportation, state police and corrections have handed out the most cell phones to employees, according to the auditor’s report. The report did not list which departments had issued the most unused cell phones.
