Audit: At one D.C. agency, it pays to clean the chairs

The D.C. Office of Unified Communications is spending $15,000 a year to have its call takers’ chairs professionally cleaned, one of numerous expenses by the agency deemed “questionable” by internal auditors in a new report.

The D.C. inspector general reported this week that the OUC, which answers all 911 and 311 calls for public safety and other government services, was spending $1,250 per month to have 50 call takers’ chairs professionally buffed and scrubbed, or $300 per chair per year. The cleaning charge was billed to the office’s purchase card, the use of which was the subject of an audit dated Feb. 12.