Court of Auditors: 35M€ for unused customs smartphones
The Federal Court of Auditors called for better budgeting, citing expensive, unusable smartphones for customs as a negative example.
(Image: gerd-harder/Shutterstock.com)
The Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesfinanzministerium, BMF) spent around 35 million euros in 2021 and 2022 on just over 17,000 smartphones, which were often not used and mostly replaced by 2024. The Federal Court of Auditors has now made this public and demanded that procured equipment must be "practicable" and have "added value for official duties." Misinvestments must be avoided. The devices were actually intended to enable the exchange of classified information. However, the infrastructure in which they were integrated was not approved for this purpose at the time. Furthermore, they were only of limited use due to "numerous functional limitations." Many customs employees therefore continued to use simple mobile phones.
Numerous points of criticism
According to the Court of Auditors, the procurement was prompted by a warning of a massive increase in attacks on the IT of the federal administration. Therefore, according to the specifications of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the customs administration was to communicate exclusively via encrypted channels. Over 14 months, exactly 17,321 smartphones approved by the BSI for this purpose were procured. In addition to the purchase costs, there were also costs for accessories and licenses. However, since no approval had been granted for this, classified information could not be sent with them at all. In addition, no calendars, phone books, or image transfers were available, and official emails could not be accessed. High-power consumption severely reduced battery life.
For all these reasons, the devices were apparently not used willingly, and the majority were replaced in 2024. Approval for the transmission of classified information was only granted later. The devices were "neither user-friendly nor future-proof," the ministry decided. This indicates that the 35 million euros had been misinvested. The devices had "hardly any added value for official duties," the Court of Auditors believes. It criticizes that there was no comprehensive and critical needs assessment. Nevertheless, the General Directorate of Customs now assumes that over 20,000 secure smartphones will be needed, 2,700 more devices than the current equipment level.
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The criticism was now voiced in the context of the "Remarks on the Federal Government's Budgetary and Economic Management." The BMF had the opportunity to object and spoke of a "strategically sensible system change" that the smartphones had enabled. The commissioning "significantly increased" the security level of communication. The customs could not continue to rely on insecure devices simply because there was no approval for the exchange of classified information. It was unclear when the approval was to be expected. Mobile networks are responsible for the high power consumption; the image of functional limitations is rejected. Furthermore, these were the only devices approved by the BSI.
(mho)
