Vancouver city hall racks up $1.1 million cellphone bill

Stanley Tromp, Vancouver CourierJuly 20, 2011
 Vancouver city councillors and staff who use mobile devices needed to update their security and find cheaper phone plans. This was the finding of a March 2010 report by the city’s internal audit branch, but the city says most of the problems have since been resolved.  The one-page audit summary was obtained by the Courier under the freedom of information law. Twelve lines were blanked out under the FOI exemptions for policy advice and financial harm.  As of May 2011, the city was paying for the use of 1,884 mobile cell devices, including 437 BlackBerry phones. Last year this cost $1,154,071 overall (which worked out to about $50 per month per device), and $520,576 for this year to date. The numbers are for city hall, parks, fire and library staff, but not for police or school board, which manage their own mobile devices. “We observed internal control weaknesses around mobile devices that require attention,” the audit stated. “The current setup does not ensure the most economical and secure use of devices and there is a lack of central monitoring of mobile device usage and compliance to the policy.” (more)