Councils are paying up to three times too much for IT products, prompting calls for an immediate review on local spending.
Research indicates that while local authorities pay on average 21% above the trade price for IT products, certain town halls shelled out as high as 323% higher than the industry standard.
The annual IT margins survey from KnowledgeBus said local spending on such products was also heading in the 'wrong direction', with average margins in the sector rising in 2014 on the previous 12 months.
Industry best practice from the Society of IT Managers states margins should exceed no more than 3% of the trade price.
Local authority managers were today called on closely monitor the market and be 'more proactive' in analysing spending.
Al Nagar, head of benchmarking at KnowledgeBus, said 'The size of some of the margins is a concern. In all likelihood these will be products that fall below the scrutiny radar - the one-off or low volume purchases, which may be a distress item or spontaneous buy. They may also be smaller items like extension cables, USB flash drives and SD cards.
'The scrutiny of spending on these items cannot be neglected, however, as they often make up a larger than expected percentage of the budget - in some cases as high as 25%.'
