Australian government body 'paid over the odds for toner cartridges' November 28, 2011 17:00 by Mike Derges

Western Australian state and local government public officers paid excessive amounts for toner cartridges, a Corruption and Crime Commission report has revealed. Staff shelled out least AUS$415,000 (£265,000) over the odds for the toner cartridges and received gifts from the firm involved over a three-year-period.

Officers who ordered the toner received gift vouchers, iPods, MP4 players, digital camcorders and LCD TVs. CCC director of corruption prevention Roger Watson said in most cases the employees did not report the gifts to their employers.

The report also found that the Victoria-based company used "aggressive sales techniques to pressure junior purchasing officers into buying quantities of toner cartridges their organisations often did not need".

Toner was sold at up to five times the price of that available through government purchasing arrangements, the report shows. False claims relating the performance of the cartridges were also identified in the report.

Cartridges tested by the CCC were sold as being able to print 30,000 pages. However, they averaged only 7,400 pages a cartridge when tested.

"One agency estimated it had enough toner to last up to five years even though the cartridges have a shelf life of only about two years," added Mr Watson. "The report found that generally the gift policies and accountability mechanisms for public authorities did not sufficiently address the misconduct risks."

The CCC report makes seven recommendations to tighten procurement procedures and policies around the recording of gifts or offers of gifts.

In the UK, the government recently rolled out the print contract used by HM Revenue and Customs in a bid to reduce spending by £21 million. Under the new arrangements, the print contract will be available to all government departments, replacing 140 separate tenders with a single framework.

Cabinet office minister Francis Maude said the deal was a "good start" for Government Procurement, a body established to negotiate contracts at a single price for the whole of government.

Posted by John Sollars