Come Out, Wherever You Are

Last January, after a Times expose found city officials had lost track of their cellular phone inventory, they moved to establish tighter controls on equipment across the board. Now a city controller’s survey has uncovered signs of another costly blunder. Departments have failed to keep close tabs on millions of dollars in computer equipment. Where is it? We suggest that the city order a preemptive inventory now, before this expensive stuff sprouts legs and starts walking out of city buildings.

In 1994-95, the city government spent $14 million on computers to help bring its bureaucracy into the Information Age. That expense should have screamed for careful accounting and heightened security procedures. But the controller’s report on four agencies reveals a familiar pattern of neglect and indifference.

The spot survey of the Fire, Police and General Services departments and the city administrative office turned up records that were out of date and inaccurate, unreasonable delays in installing new technology and lax rules for disposing of old computers. In some cases improvements were made. But not in most.

Controller Rick Tuttle has recommended that the city take steps to implement a common, easy-to-use inventory system and improve coordination between the Department of General Services, which purchases the equipment, and the Information Technology Agency, which installs it. Sounds obvious to us.

But these changes are being asked of agencies with poor records in efficiency. Employees at the General Services Department, for instance, left newly purchased computers in a storage closet for 18 months.

This same department was ordered by the City Council last year to boost security at City Hall by hiring more guards and installing metal detectors, locks and security cameras. That work is incomplete.

It’s time some feet were held to the fire. Now where did they put those matches?