House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-14 Daily Xml

Contents

Answers to Questions

MOBILE PHONES

5 Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (1 June 2010). For each government department—

(a) how many public servants have the use of a Departmental issued mobile phone for personal use;

(b) what is the average cost of calls per month charged to the Department; and

(c) what has been the cost for the use of these mobile phones in each year since 2004?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries): Responses are provided in relation to mobile phone usage and call costs for public servants within the Department of Treasury and Finance.

(a) In relation to Department of Treasury and Finance, no public servants are issued with mobile phones for the primary purpose of personal use. Where personnel incur incidental personal call costs, the costs are reimbursed to the department in accordance with departmental policy.

(b) The average per month cost of mobile phone calls to the department for the 2009-10 financial year is $6,317.

(c) The cost of calls to the department on a per month basis since 2004 is as follows:

$1,729 for 2004-05;

$1,528 for 2005-06;

$1,499 for 2006-07;

$2,073 for 2007-08;

$5,905 for 2008-09; and

$6,317 for 2009-10, as reported in part 2.

The increase in costs from year 2007-08 to year 2008-09 is attributable to inclusion of mobile phone calls for Shared Services SA operations which commenced in that year.