Actually, a regular audit might well not find unused telecom lines--it would show bills for telecom services and payments for telecom services. There aren't any physical objects to check against. I don't know if you've ever looked at the telecom bills for a large organization with many locations, but in my experience matching the bills up to actual services can literally take years. In particular, depending upon the company and the bill type they often don't tell you where the circuits being billed are located. They are also often wrong.
There are companies that specialize in doing telecom audits, often for a percentage of the savings they will generate by finding unused lines that are still being paid for or lines that are billed incorrectly or lines that are not contracted at the best rates.
Considering all the facilities they are closing, the city certainly should be doing regular telecom audits and if they haven't [[and this looks like they haven't) I would say that is mismanagement, not that it would be a surprise.
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