Its no doubt our governments are the biggest contractors of privatized services. One service, the cellphone, is costing one government big. QMI Agency discovered that the Canadian Federal Government faced a $75 million phone bill in 2010. Now, the feds are looking for ways to cut the high BlackBerry bill. I say BlackBerry bill because iPhones are excluded from federal government contracts.
“Before 2004, each department purchased cellular services on an individual basis,” said public works spokeswoman Nathalie Betote Akwa.Nine federal departments started buying wireless services together in 2004. They renegotiated their contract in 2007, and several other departments have since joined the group.
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To help cut costs, the government finalized agreements with Rogers, Bell and Telus to provide phones to staff in 130 departments and agencies. According to sources, the new contract, signed last December, took effect on Feb. 26.
Rogers won the biggest piece of the pie, providing phones and BlackBerrys to bureaucrats at a cost of $117 million to taxpayers over the next four years. Bell will get $45 million, and Telus will get $34 million over the same period.
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