Thousands of smartphones purchased by US Veterans Affairs Dept went unused

The US Department of Veterans Affairs wasted nearly US$2mil when many of the smartphones bought during the pandemic for homeless veterans went unused, according to an inspector general's report. — AP

The US Department of Veterans Affairs wasted nearly US$2mil (RM8.75mil) when most of the smartphones bought during the pandemic for homeless veterans went unused, according to an inspector general’s report.

The report, released Wednesday, found that the Veterans Health Administration spent nearly US$7mil (RM30.62mil) to purchase 10,000 phones with unlimited prepaid calling plans but that 85% of the phones gathered dust. As a result, it lost US$1.8mil (RM7.87mil) in wasted data plan costs. The inspector general also found that US$571,000 (RM2.49mil) was wasted on data plans due to poor oversight of its purchase of nearly 81,000 iPads.