How did a council lose 90 mobiles and 30 laptops?

Dudley council said £35,000 was the replacement market value of the equipment

More than £30,000 worth of IT equipment, including 89 mobile phones and 29 laptops, has been lost by a council, it has emerged.

The gear was acquired by Dudley Council between January 2020 and August last year, and issued to workers who now no longer work for the authority.

The unaccounted-for kit also includes five tablet devices and a Nikon digital camera.

A spokesperson said the authority was committed to "reviewing our practices and storage arrangements to prevent similar incidents in the future".

Councillor Jackie Cowell, said: "I find it very worrying, we need to tighten up procedures. Given the current financial situation we can do a lot with £35,000.

"I’m not too sure whether it's gone missing or they don't know where it is, the council has got to have a much stronger focus on this sort of thing."

Ms Cowell suggested that some of the kit might actually have been transferred between members of staff, but the procedure not properly logged.

"I think that is a reasonable conclusion," she said. "But that most likely doesn’t account for all of it and even if it does, it is demonstrative of very poor control."

'Tighter controls'

The authority pointed out £35,000 was the replacement market value of the equipment, not the residual value which it believed would be much lower.

Phil Atkins, council cabinet member for corporate strategy, said: "The council has a clear process in place for equipment to be returned once employment ends. In the vast majority of cases this happens.

"In the instances where it doesn't, we rigorously follow up with individuals to work to get the property back.

"Our debtor's team continues to pursue those with any outstanding items."

The spokesperson said the authority "fully acknowledged the significance of averting preventable losses".

"We are dedicated to enhancing our inventory management systems and implementing tighter controls over equipment issuance and returns," they added.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.