Over $350,000 is spent every year paying for cellphones for government employees that have little to no use.
This is the conclusion of a new report from my office. We looked at nearly 2,200 cellphones carried by government employees to determine if their usage was justified. What we found was that the taxpayers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on cellphones that are used for less than 51 minutes a month.
Said differently, of the cell phones we examined, 30% of them are going almost totally unused.
State agencies should act now and review their cell phone contracts to ensure they are saving your money. Many of the phone plans could be canceled. Some need a dramatic reduction in the minutes or data purchased each month.
Low usage cellphones are just another opportunity for the state to reinvest money into more critical areas. Some may say $350,000 per year is not that much. But when I hear $350,000, I hear 11 new police officers on the streets or 14 new police cruisers every year. This would be critical right now as our state goes through a crime spree. According to the CDC, we now rank number one in the country for per capita deaths due to homicide. Jackson, our state capital, is the per capita homicide capital of the United States.
Or we could fund education. When I hear $350,000 per year, I hear the ability to buy thousands of textbooks or boost teacher pay.
In other words, I hear the ability for your government to better serve you. I see the difference that this money could make. It is long past time that someone watches over this spending to ensure that we are doing it right and in a way that best benefits the people.
My office has not only handled some of the biggest fraud cases in state history, but we’re also committed to looking for savings in the smallest corners of state government, as we did with this cell phone study.
Government bureaucrats are great at spending your money, but when it comes to saving your dollars or spending them in appropriate places, they struggle.
That is why my office continues to research and report where your tax dollars are spent. I want to make sure that every Mississippian knows where their money is going. I want the government bureaucrats to know that my office is watching.
As your State Auditor, I continually see your tax dollars being spent in ways that do not help you. Unfortunately, I am unable to change the policies that create this issue—auditors don’t get to run agencies, they just audit them—but I can make the potential savings known to each and every Mississippian. Together, we can push our government to do better. I am committed to continuing to increase transparency in how your tax dollars are spent, so together, we can continue to move Mississippi forward.
This article was originally published by Enterprise-Journal
The post Want to Save Taxpayer Money? Cancel the Cell Phones. appeared first on Mississippi Office of the State Auditor News.