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Two public bodies have been forced to take drastic measures to stop their employees from burning up the phone lines.
Both the Department of Local Government and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) have enforced stringent telephone monitoring mechanisms following astronomical bills racked up by their employees.
At Tuesday's sitting of the Public Accounts Committee, the Auditor General highlighted an $11 million bill at the Local government department.
Director General in the Office of the Prime Minister, Devon Rowe told the sitting that since the bill was uncovered several steps have been taken.
"Since this query we have disconnected all the dial nine lines, we are acquiring codes for the straight line and we are also acquiring software from the service provider which hopefully will allow us to go backwards over the period that some of these calls were made to determine from which phones they were made and to make a determination as to how much can be recovered," said Mr. Rowe.
He added that the department has also implemented a closed user group cellular service which has helped to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, at the NSWMA the Auditor General highlighted a $6.2 million bill for telephone service.
The concern was that the portion of the bill which could be attributed to official business could not be ascertained, due to a lack of proper controls.
NSWMA head Joan Gordon Webley explained the new system to committee members.
"What we have been able to retrieve $77,951 for personal calls. We have disconnected all straight lines, we have said to persons within the Ministry ‘you have a cell phone, everyone has a cell phone in Jamaica, use it for personal calls'. We have only the directors who have a code to get to a phone and they themselves have to make a list of the calls they make," said Mrs. Gordon-Webley.
http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/16623/26/
Both the Department of Local Government and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) have enforced stringent telephone monitoring mechanisms following astronomical bills racked up by their employees.
At Tuesday's sitting of the Public Accounts Committee, the Auditor General highlighted an $11 million bill at the Local government department.
Director General in the Office of the Prime Minister, Devon Rowe told the sitting that since the bill was uncovered several steps have been taken.
"Since this query we have disconnected all the dial nine lines, we are acquiring codes for the straight line and we are also acquiring software from the service provider which hopefully will allow us to go backwards over the period that some of these calls were made to determine from which phones they were made and to make a determination as to how much can be recovered," said Mr. Rowe.
He added that the department has also implemented a closed user group cellular service which has helped to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, at the NSWMA the Auditor General highlighted a $6.2 million bill for telephone service.
The concern was that the portion of the bill which could be attributed to official business could not be ascertained, due to a lack of proper controls.
NSWMA head Joan Gordon Webley explained the new system to committee members.
"What we have been able to retrieve $77,951 for personal calls. We have disconnected all straight lines, we have said to persons within the Ministry ‘you have a cell phone, everyone has a cell phone in Jamaica, use it for personal calls'. We have only the directors who have a code to get to a phone and they themselves have to make a list of the calls they make," said Mrs. Gordon-Webley.
http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/16623/26/