Federal government racks up nearly $300,000 in cellphone late fees

Hold the phone — the federal government has racked up close to $300,000 in late fees for cellphone services and other wireless devices over the past few years because it never paid its bills on time.

The eye-popping wireless late-payment charges have accumulated as the government insists it is owed $3.5 million in wrongfully charged late fees by telephone companies.

Nearly $70,000 in cellphone late payment fees came in October 2013 alone and another $65,000 from November 2013, according to documents tabled this week in the House of Commons.

The Conservative government has been piling up late-payment fees as it preaches fiscal prudence, cutting billions of dollars in spending and laying off thousands of federal government employees.

“Taxpayers are having to pay more than a quarter of a million dollars because the government didn’t pay its cellphone bills on time and I think that’s outrageous,” said Liberal MP Geoff Regan, who requested the information from the government.

“It’s an outrage that they would flush that money down the toilet because they can’t get their act together when Canadians pay their bills on time and the government can’t.”

More than $280,000 of the late-payment charges since January 2012 were for cellphone services, with thousands of dollars more in late charges for other wireless devices, according to the documents.

Most of the taxpayer-funded late fees since 2012 were incurred by Shared Services Canada, the government’s super-IT department that was created about three years ago and is responsible for telecommunication services.

The majority of the late-payment fees — more than $250,000 worth — were owed to Bell Mobility, although more than a dozen wireless companies all charged late fees to the government.

A spokeswoman for Public Works Minister Diane Finley, who is responsible for Shared Services Canada, said telephone late-payment charges will not be tolerated.

Shared Services Canada has consolidated billing down from 75,000 individual phone bills per month, with nearly 99 per cent of all phone bills now paid on time, said Finley’s spokeswoman Alyson Queen.

Overall, telephone costs have been reduced by $57 million this year alone, she said, although she didn’t provide the total cost of phone bills.

“The late fees costs incurred by SSC last year were unacceptable to Canadian taxpayers and to our government,” Queen said in an emailed statement.

The government has been demanding two telephone companies refund what the government argues is $3.5 million in wrongfully charged late-payment fees.

Shared Services Canada has, however, been able to recoup about $1.25 million since January from nine companies that charged late fees on $300 million worth of contracts.

The department took over the various phone contracts when the government amalgamated its IT services in one place, but it was initially overwhelmed by the 25,000 invoices it received monthly.

Shared Services Canada first noticed last year telephone companies that provided basic services and features such as voicemail and call display were routinely charging and processing late payment fees from the government.

According to a government briefing note obtained by the Citizen, the late fees were assessed “contrary to the terms and conditions of the contracts for these services.”

Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: BY JASON FEKETE