The state of New Jersey was paying for more than...

the lines, saving more than $3.2 million annually, the comptroller said. Auditors also found that for more than a decade New Jersey has renewed major telecom contracts without subjecting them to competitive bidding, as required by law. “The state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars every month for phone lines that are not even being used,” Comptroller Matthew Boxer said. “Examples of government waste don’t get much clearer than that.” In one instance the state kept paying for a former worker’s wireless phone for almost six years after she resigned. The audit followed a review by the comptroller of the state’s monthly phone usage reports. Since then, departments have disconnected or suspended for 30 days a total of more than 18,000 land lines and disconnected nearly 1,400 unused wireless lines. From now on, the technology office periodically will prod agencies to disconnect lines seeing zero use, the comptroller said. In reviewing state telecom contracts, auditors found that the state has extended four contracts at least seven times without subjecting them to mandatory competition. One contract has been extended 22 times, the comptroller said. Each of these four contracts originally went to the current vendor 10 to 15 years ago after a competitive procurement process. Each contract began with a term of one to three years, but since the original deal was made all have been extended repeatedly. “In one case, the State has paid two vendors -- both part of the same contract -- a total of $164.6 million over the course of six years of extensions,” the comptroller said. “The state has prevented fair vendor competition in its telecommunications contracts for more than a decade and essentially handed out a no-bid contract with each extension,” Boxer said. The comptroller said that during a one-year period, the state paid more than $250,000 in directory assistance charges that state workers ran up when toll-free assistance was available. Vendors owe the state more than $43,000 for bills sent and paid after data lines were disconnected in 2008 and 2009. Many state departments aren’t maintaining documentation to justify assigning employees wireless devices. About 19,000 such devices are assigned to executive branch employees, the comptroller said.