Audit: State Employees Misused State-Issued Cell Phones

A new audit of state employees' use of state cell phones and pagers found that some employees took advantage of their state-issued phones, running up thousands of dollars in bills for personal calls, games and ring tones.

By: Robert Kittle | News Channel 7
Published: June 11, 2008

The Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services had the biggest tab for overage charges--$108,900 for one year. One employee had 150 hours of personal phone calls in one year, resulting in $2,800 in overage charges.

The audit was done by the state Legislative Audit Council and released Wednesday. It includes recommendations that it says could save taxpayers over $800,000 a year.

Pete O'Boyle, spokesman for the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, says the employee who ran up such a large bill paid it back, was suspended without pay and is no longer with the agency. He says all employees have to reimburse the agency for personal calls.

He says the agency has also formed a committee to look at its cell phone policy, and there's one employee who now audits the cell phone bill every month to make sure there's no personal use or other misuse. The audit found that some employees had downloaded games and ring tones that cost a total of almost $2,000.

"We've greatly reduced our cell phone usage and our cost, through better contracts, reduction in roaming costs, and we've reduced the number of cell phones actually in use by almost half," O'Boyle says.

The audit's recommendations for saving money include agencies reviewing cell phone usage to make sure they have the most cost-effective plan and reviewing employee cell phone use to see if employees have a continuing need for the cell phone. Agencies could also provide prepaid phones to employees who need phones only for use in emergencies.

You can see the entire audit report at www.lac.sc.gov

The audit found that other agencies have also taken steps to reduce personal use and inappropriate downloads. Those steps include requiring employees to reimburse the agency for those charges, blocking downloads where possible, reviewing agency cell phone bills and counseling employees on the proper use of state-issued cell phones.