GAO: Agencies must do more to cut $1 billion federal phone bill

Most federal agencies have not done enough to help cut down on the $1.2 billion a year the government pays for mobile phones and other wireless devices, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The federal government spends money on about 1.5 million devices, according to the most recent data in 2012 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Of the 15 agencies the GAO reviewed, only five had fully completed an agency-wide or other broad inventory of government-issued mobile devices and contract costs. Only one agency was found to have fully developed broad procedures that allow it to look at how often phones are used, which the GAO says can reveal waste and lead to cost savings. "GAO recommends that the 15 agencies take actions to improve their inventories and control processes and that OMB measure and report progress in achieving mobile cost savings," the GAO wrote in a summary of the report.