An internal audit has found that Bradford Council could save up to £90,000 a year on mobile phones – but IT experts at the Council say it is "unlikely that anything like that magnitude of saving can be made."

The annual report of the Council’s internal audit team claimed the council found 2,000 old phones and a sample check revealed at least 25 per cent of them were still being paid for – despite them being turned off and lying unused.

The audit recommends the council reuses more of these 2,000 phones and manages its tariffs better to cut the amount of money being wasted.

IT specialists within the council have "welcomed" the challenge from the audit, but a spokesman for the Council said it was "wrong to assume" the phones were surplus because many staff use them purely for incoming calls while they are out on site.

The spokesman also pointed out that 1,200 of the phones are zero tariff, pay-as-you-go phones, so are being kept at no cost to the council, while most of the remaining phones are on a tariff of £2.75 a month.

However, opposition councillors have criticised the council for wasting money.

Councillor Geoff Reid (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) sits on the Governance and Audit Committee, which met on Thursday. He said: “Residents will rightly be angered at this waste. At a time when services are being cut and the Labour leaders of the council are pleading poverty, we find out that they wasted thousands on mobile phones they are not even using.”

The report stated: “In some cases (25 per cent of the sample checked) monthly tariffs were still being paid. By applying Audit recommendations for re-use of existing phones and better tariff management, the service responsible for telephony management estimated that £70-90,000 could be saved.”

Councillor John Pennington, Conservative Group Leader at Bradford Council, said he would be asking questions of the authority at Full Council. He said: “It’s outrageous. It appears to me to be mismanagement to the extreme.

“At a time when austerity is biting like never before, I’m amazed, concerned and horrified this has happened. It’s diabolical.

“I’m Leader of Bradford Council’s Conservative group and I don’t have one. I use my own.

“It’s down to good housekeeping and if people were paying for those phones themselves they would treat them with a lot more respect.”

A Council Spokesperson said: “The Council has had huge Government cuts to its budget over the last 8 years so we are always looking to see where we can make more savings.

"Since the council has taken its IT services back in-house we have saved £9 million on the running of the service. This report has been put together by the Council’s Internal Audit team asking the question whether yet more money can still be saved, this dialogue is a work in progress.

“It is the view of the IT specialists in the council, that whilst they welcome the challenge from Audit, it is unlikely that anything like that magnitude of saving can be made. First of all it is wrong to assume that the phones are surplus. Many staff use phones purely for incoming calls whilst they are out on site. A Children’s Social Worker, for example, will keep a phone with them so that a young person can phone them if there is an emergency after hours.

“1,200 of the phones are on zero tariff, pay-as-you-go phones, so are being kept at no cost to the council.

"Most of the remaining phones are on a tariff of £2.75 a month pending these also going to zero tariff. The vast majority of these phones are old devices, not smart phones, which would not be suitable for re-use.”

Councillor Reid added: “The Internal Audit was regarded as successful, but clearly there are other parts of the Council that disagree.”