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State Auditor Says Spending on Food and Cellular Phones Could be Reduced

JEFFERSON CITY - State employees may be biting off more than they can chew, according to an audit released last week by Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill.

McCaskill said Monday that the state spent $10.6 million over the last two years on food, with most of it going to employees. The audit also found that state departments and agencies regularly scheduled meetings during the lunch hour.

Parties for employee retirements were also funded by the state, according to the audit. The state also paid exorbitant prices for meals up to $32 per person at agency-sponsored events.

"Should we be having the taxpayers pick up the lunch tab because we all go to lunch together and talk about the office over lunch?" McCaskill asked. "That certainly doesn't happen in the private sector....And so I don't think it should happen in the public sector."

Another audit released Monday states that better monitoring of state cellular telephone use would result in lower costs. The state spent about $2.5 million on cell phones in the last fiscal year.

Billing errors for cell phones went unquestioned in many cases, the audit found. Some agencies did not question bills that did not contain call-by-call records.

The Department of Public Safety's Office of Adjutant General had considerable difficulty paying its bills on time. Confusion within the office over who was supposed to pay the bill took several months to resolve, according to the audit. The office still had a delinquent balance of $21,601 as of March 21, 2001.

In many cases, the state was not reimbursed for calls made on state phones. Some agencies were unclear in their methods of reconciling bills with personal calls and collecting payment from the users.

"I think if there has been systematic use of a state cell phone paid for totally by state money for significant personal use, then at a minimum, it should involve some kind of discipline, employee discipline, and certainly reimbursement to the state," she said.

McCaskill's office recommends that the Office of Administration formulate regulations to stem excessive spending on food and improve accountability for cellular phones.