Hinds audit turns up $35,000 in stockpiled ink, toner

JACKSON – (AP) Workers in Hinds County don’t have to worry about running out of toner or printer ink anytime soon.

An audit of county’s administrator and purchasing department found $35,000 of stockpiled toner and printer ink, even though the county’s contract for master copying machines provides it.

“It had been bought and just squirreled away,” said District 4 Supervisor Phil Fisher, who requested an audit of the desktop machinery in the fall. “They’ve been sticking it in closets for years, and nobody’s said anything. It’s absurd for taxpayers to be paying for this.”

County Administrator Carmen Davis and several supervisors say the surplus of toner and ink is the result not of over-ordering but of the county’s 2008 conversion to an electronic-based system of scanning instead of copying, and emailing rather than faxing.

“This is the expected result of when we changed to a new system,” said Supervisors’ President Robert Graham of District 1. “It’s like meat in the refrigerator. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t going to be eaten, but you got something better.”

The discovery of the surplus comes at a time when the county has been borrowing from bond and 911 emergency operations funds to pay its monthly bills while it waits for tax revenues to flow in.

Fisher told board members he was concerned some county employees needlessly had desktop printers, fax machines and copiers. Some of those likely could use common equipment in their work area, he said.

The audit was performed under the direction of Davis and purchasing head Timothy Lewis.

“We’ve gone to departments and have conducted an evaluation, and we’ve relinquished some desktop printers,” Davis said.

But for security reasons, such as with some employees of courts and the district attorney’s office, some desktop equipment is necessary, she said. “You have to be guarded with your information, and you don’t want that going to common printers,” Davis said.

She said about 22 printers and five fax machines were found unnecessary in November, about 10 percent of those in use. The assessment is ongoing, she said.