Root

The state variable totalPenaltyFeesCollected is declared but never read from or written to anywhere in the contract, making it a dead variable.

Impact

dead variable only taking storage of 32 bytes.

Description

• Unecessary variables should avoided. totalpenaltyfeecollected should be remove or use.

• totalpenaltyfeecollected is unused and dead.

Risk

Likelihood: Low

Impact: Consumes an unnecessary storage slot (32 bytes).

• Increases deployment cost and overall gas usage.

• Reduces code clarity and may mislead reviewers into assuming penalty fees are tracked when they are not.

No direct security risk is introduced.

Proof of Concept

A full-text search of the contract shows that totalPenaltyFeesCollected is:

• Declared in the contract

• Never updated

• Never referenced in any function

Therefore, the variable has no effect on contract behavior.

Recommended Mitigation

Remove the unused state variable, or implement logic to correctly update and use it when penalty fees are applied.