The expenditure on purchasing mobile phones for staff in my Department for work-related business in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019 is detailed in the following table.
|
Year
|
Total Spend on Mobile Phones incl. VAT
|
|
2016
|
€14,148
|
|
2017
|
€20,093
|
|
2018
|
€25,945
|
|
2019 to date
|
€16,451
|
Mobile phones are purchased in batches and allocated/replaced as required. Handsets are also redeployed when staff leave my Department. Accordingly, it is not possible to break down this spend by staff grade. The breakdown of phones currently assigned to staff in my Department by grade is:
Table - Phones Assigned to Department of Defence Staff
All mobile phones are issued to staff based on an approved business case. My Department had a contract with Vodafone for supply of mobile phones, which has now expired. My Department is in the process of moving to the ‘Desktop as a Service’ managed ICT service delivery model provided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). As part of this service, the Department will procure mobile phones from the OGCIO’s contract, which will be based on the most up-to-date framework available from the Office of Government Procurement. Using this framework will ensure that my Department will leverage the considerable buying power of the Public Service to ensure the best value for the taxpayer is achieved.
