Ealing Council has issued a warning to staff to stop stealing or moving ICT equipment, after over £65,000 worth has been taken over the last six months.
The information was revealed to staff and ward councillors in an e-mail on Thursday (4 April), warning staff after the council had spent £65,000 replacing missing equipment.
“This leads to a lot of frustration and complaints from staff who come to work only to find desks are missing equipment” the email says.
New guidance has been issued to staff and councillors after the large sum of missing equipment was revealed. Staff are now encouraged to bring ICT equipment from home where possible, and if not to log any missing items on the ICT team’s internal portal system.
Staff are not allowed to remove ICT equipment out of office without placing a service request and submitting a “valid reason” for doing so. Those leaving employment at the council will also have the cost of any ICT equipment they take recovered from them directly.
Anyone found to not be abiding by this guidance will be subject to disciplinary action, according to the warning.
The Liberal Democrats, the official Opposition on Ealing Council, used the news to attack what they described as Ealing Council’s “incompetence”. They criticised the council for allowing so much equipment to be stolen.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Gary Busuttil, Spokesperson for Finance, said: “Labour Council often claims it has no money but then we find out more examples of their waste where they have lost or had stolen £65,000 of IT equipment in just the last six months.
“Liberal Democrats want to see Ealing Council run efficiently and we uncovered over 1.5M of wasted spending that we would have reallocated to making Ealing cleaner and safer and helping many vulnerable residents.
“It is a smack in the face that Labour pours our council taxes down the drain.”