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.
The agency spent $19,500 to buy the black fabric chairs two years ago when it opened its new call center in Southeast.
“In a little more than a year, the cost of cleaning exceeds the cost of a chair,” said at-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, who has oversight of the agency as chairman of the public safety committee. “That’s pretty amazing.”
The IG called on the office “to eliminate questionable purchases such as chair-cleaning services.” Wiping off a chair “can be performed by employees,” the auditors noted, and no other emergency call center in the region has a chair-cleaning contract. Two vendors performed the service, the IG said, including Bethesda-based SSI Services Inc.
Janice Quintana, OUC director, rejected the recommendation.
“The chairs are occupied 24 hours a day 7 days a week and we feel that for the overall quality of the work environment, general upkeep, and proper hygiene, this equipment should be cleaned on a regular basis,” Quintana wrote in her written response to the report.
The agency, Quintana wrote, is considering whether to buy new chairs made of a material that can be cleaned in-house. The IG, however, urged against “spend[ing] additional funds to replace chairs that are relatively new.”
“It tells me they don’t have an eye on the cost to taxpayers,” Mendelson said of Quintana’s office.
Among other OUC purchase card buys deemed questionable by auditors:
» $83,654 to furnish its child care development center, which was ready for use in September 2007 but never opened. That it remains closed, Mendelson said, “would explain why employee morale has plummeted.”
» $59,365 on employee uniforms for call takers who have no face-to-face contact with the public. The uniforms include pants, long-sleeve shirts, short-sleeve shirts, a coat and a sweater.
» $1,085 for professionally printed employee leave request forms.
