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BUFFALO NEWS Cell phone audit finds county still wasteful By MATTHEW SPINA News Staff Reporter 4/11/2006 Erie County auditors have found that dozens of the government's almost 700 cell phones and wireless devices remain assigned to former employees; some current workers downloaded games and images onto their phones; and calls go out late at night and on weekends to numbers with no apparent link to county business. The auditors also reported that some high-level officials have both a cell phone and a BlackBerry wireless device "when one should be sufficient" and that phones have been passed from worker to worker with such frequency that the government no longer has an accurate list of who holds its cell phones. "Our review found hundreds of employees, including elected officials, department heads and key administrative personnel, made calls that can only be construed as personal in nature, including calls at night and on weekends," said a report compiled by auditors working for County Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz. "The existing policy also strictly prohibits all county employees from making long-distance calls for personal use. Our review found this policy regularly violated, including by department heads," the report said. The draft obtained by The Buffalo News does not state how much money could be saved with better oversight and enforcement. The county spent an average of $240,000 a year on cellular phones and wireless devices during the five years examined by auditors, a tiny percentage of a $1.1 billion budget. One of the county's providers, Cingular, does not charge for long-distance calls, the report said. And the practice of downloading games or special ring tones, which auditors did not describe as widespread, involved charges of about $13 a month per phone. Then there is the question of the enhanced productivity that cell phones offer, according to the administration of County Executive Joel A. Giambra. "I am not going to send a social worker or an investigator out into the field without the ability to communicate," Deputy County Executive, Bruce L. Fisher said. "And it is more efficient to have these front-line workers have the right equipment than to strip them of the tools they need. "When you are talking about downloading ring tones, which this audit has brought up, our people have addressed that issue. It is literally an issue of nickels and dimes. And still, our department is working on it, because we take nickels and dimes seriously. . . . There is no disagreement that we have to take care of the public's money." Five years after another audit found poor tracking of cell phone use, auditors reached similar conclusions. The county buys a hodgepodge of plans - Verizon, Cingular, Nextel - some of which involve add-ons or charges that many users might haggle over if spending their own money. For instance, the county paid Cingular termination fees of $80 or $90 when the contract mentions no such fee, the report said. In September 2005, the county canceled 11 accounts and paid to activate three, for $36 each. But Fisher also said the Department of Information and Support Services, which is in charge of wireless devices, lost key personnel during last year's layoffs. Verizon phones cost the county anywhere from $44.99 to $104.99 a month, and auditors found that some workers were assigned phones they use for just a few minutes a month. For instance, each of 10 Health Department employees used, at most, 17 minutes of airtime in December 2005, but the county paid $47.39 for each phone that month. A county attorney's office employee used only 49 minutes, but the county paid $47.07. "This lack of usage raises the question of why certain employees enjoy this privilege," the report said. The lack of accurate records on who was assigned a cell phone was easy to spot; three comptroller's office employees were on a list of workers given a wireless phone, but those were assigned only temporarily and were returned early in 2005. Later, auditors found that a costly Sheriff's Department phone had changed hands three times as workers retired and handed it off, without involving the Department of Information and Support Services. Seventy-eight wireless devices, the auditors said, are associated with the names of 58 former county employees, and the comptroller's office could confirm that just 10 had actually gone to other county workers and that one went to a county vendor. Two are assigned to former Giambra appointees Jeffrey W. Hammond and David B. Pfaff. Neither could be reached to comment Monday. "This is a serious matter that raises fundamental control issues," the auditors said. "We are indeed aware of individuals who left county employment, and those individuals will pay for their usage," Fisher said. "The fact that the companies haven't straightened out their billings is something we are aware of, and there is a paper trail." Poloncarz late Monday said he was angry that a draft of the audit had been made public before a final conference on its findings with Giambra administration officials. The latest version is stronger than an early report given to Giambra's staff. Poloncarz said that some conclusions could change before the final audit is completed next week. e-mail: mspina@buffnews.com Copyright 2006 - The Buffalo News |
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