November 13, 2004
San Jose finds possible misuse of cell phones
An audit of San Jose employees' cell phone use revealed glaring examples of potential abuse by workers -- some of whom ran up thousands of minutes on their city-issued cell phones and never reimbursed the city, reports The Mercury News.
In the first-ever such audit, made public Friday, City Auditor Gerald Silva faulted the city for weak oversight and monitoring of its cell phone program which "increases the risk of abuse.''
The audit found thousands of cell phone minutes were used for out-of-state and even international calls. Conversely, several hundred cell phones were seldom or never used that nonetheless cost the city to maintain."
The city's wireless telephone policy, last updated in 1994, says personal use shall "be limited to those calls which, in the reasonable discretion of the employee, are deemed to be appropriate.''
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