Phone abuse control at Treasury

Written by Newsline Writers
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Monthly phone bills cost thousands of tala A senior official at the Treasury office has confirmed that the Ministry of Finance has put in place measures to control the use of office phones following excessive phone bills recorded in recent months. Documentation, anonymously received by Newsline stated that Treasury phone bills for the months of November and December ran up to more than $60,000 for each month. Prior to that, the Ministry’s had phone bills up to $50,000 tala per month. Reports also indicated calls made by individuals from the Ministry’s land lines to cell phones that lasted up to almost two hours, some costing up to hundreds of tala. Some phone calls were made way after working hours according to reports. The senior official confirmed because of this (excessive use of phones and large phone bills), the management at Treasury has issued an internal memo restricting the usage of telephone by its staff. Conditions of this memo include phones being tolled bar banning calls to cell phones. Also the memo restricted the duration of phone use to certain minutes. The senior official said the move by the management was to put control on the management of the Ministry’s assets. “We wanted to control the abuse of the Ministry’s assets,” the senior official told Newsline. “We also wanted to make sure that our staff uses their time wisely during working hours.” Newsline understands some staff members who had bills that totaled up to more than hundreds of tala are being asked to pay for the amounts themselves. The senior official also said the Ministry has restricted the access of staff members from other Ministries located in the Central Bank Building from using their telephones. “Mind you that we’re not the only Ministry in this building (CBS),” the senior official said. “There have been cases where some staff from other ministries come and use our phone line.” The senior official said they are continuing investigating this matter. “There are several issues that we are investigating at the moment.” Comments (1) Subscribe to this comment's feed Shame on Treasury Department written by Joyce Samuelu, February 11, 2008 I am so disgusted with the Treasury Department and its abuse of goverment funds on their phone bills. This is the Department that is controlling our government funds. What disgusts me is that. these people question over every move when purchasing goods for our Divisions, it is a hazard becasue some queries takes up a month for them to process and yet they are the ones really abusing funds. I strongly feel that the Government do someting about this Division and their phonebills. One suggestion is to identify their staff with these huge bills and let them pay it themselves. The Treasury are really saying that other government Divisions can limit their phonebills to $800 -$900 a month while they can do whatever they like. Shame on you Treasury and your phone bills. soifua Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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