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MASAD-82-4 1 (1981-10-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabcop0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE ._,_ WASHINGTON. D.C. 20548 MISSION ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMS ACQUISITION DIVISION B-202969 OCTOBER 22. 1981 The Honbrable Gerald P. Carmen Administrator of General Services Dear Mr. Carmen: Subject: Increased Federal Telecommunications System Use By Strengthened Control Over Commercial Toll Calls Could Reduce Costs (MASAD-82-4) Commercial toll calls made by Federal employees through the Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) switchboard locations will result in an estimated $22.9 million in costs during fiscal year 1981. However, easy access to FTS makes it unnecessary to use commercial long-distance toll facilities to complete official calls. Our current review shows that the General Services Admin- istration (GSA) needs to be more aggressive in preventing such unnecessary costs for long-distance calls. Based on nationwide data, we estimate that $10.2 million, or 44.5 percent, of the commercial toll costs will be incurred by Federal employees from FTS telephones, either intentionally or out of ignorance, when the calls could have been placed over the FTS system at nominal additional cost to the Government. This problem continues to escalate despite our previous ef- fort to bring about corrective action. In our August 17, 1973, report (B-146864), we concluded that neither GSA nor the civil agencies contacted had active programs to ensure FTS was used instead of more expensive commercial toll services. Using a test basis, we determined that about 41 percent of the commercial toll costs could have been avoided. We recommended that GSA (1) iden- tify circumstances under which commercial toll services were being used and (2). develop policies and programs to reduce Government costs by using FTS instead of commercial toll services. Commercial toll costs have increased'threefold since our earlier review--from $7.2 million in fiscal year 1972 to dn estimated $22.9 million in fiscal year 1981. Although there was a 70-percent increase in the number of telephones during the same period, the costs--discounted for tariff increases--have increased at a higher rate. (941214) 116700

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