An internal audit has found that Bradford Council could save up to £90,000 a year on mobile phones – but IT experts at the Council say it is “unlikely that anything like that magnitude of saving can be made.”
The annual report of the Council’s internal audit team claimed the council found 2,000 old phones and a sample check revealed at least 25 per cent of them were still being paid for – despite them being turned off and lying unused.
The audit recommends the council reuses more of these 2,000 phones and manages its tariffs better to cut the amount of money being wasted.
IT specialists within the council have “welcomed” the challenge from the audit, but a spokesman for the Council said it was “wrong to assume” the phones were surplus because many staff use them purely for incoming calls while they are out on site.
The spokesman also pointed out that 1,200 of the phones are zero tariff, pay-as-you-go phones, so are being kept at no cost to the council, while most of the remaining phones are on a tariff of £2.75 a month.
However, opposition councillors have criticised the council for wasting money.
Councillor Geoff Reid (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) sits on the…
