A recent audit found that the state of Virginia paid AT&T, Verizon and other wireless providers nearly $1 Million from July to December 2009 for more than 4,500 phones that had no use during that time (see article: bit.ly/aMsChZ). The audit revealed that unused phones accounted for nearly 40 percent of all the employee cell phones managed by the state’s information technology agency! In addition, Virginia also spent about $75,000 per month in overage charges — penalties for exceeding the phone’s allowance of minutes — on BlackBerrys and other cell phones during the same period
Virginia’s challenges in managing wireless expenses are not unique. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was also paying for cell phones held by terminated employees. A list of active pagers included 181 employees who had left the school. It was also paying for unnecessary services like cell phone picture messaging, and text messaging.
Many organizations struggle with managing wireless services because they have inadequate internal controls and little to no oversight over this area. Wireless services have grown rapidly over the past few years, but most organizations have not been able to add staff to manage these new expenses. It is often a manual process, and many organizations do not have the tools to track personal usage by employees.
Do you have automated software to identify situations where you are paying for terminated employees’ wireless expenses? Do you have resources to verify your findings before you terminate an executive’s service? If you don’t, it’s something you need to address.
