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1 The Department of Justice's Control over Weapons and Laptop Computers i (2002)

handle is hein.agopinions/dtjcclownlp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE'S CONTROL OVER WEAPONS AND LAPTOP COMPUTERS SUMMARY REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In March 2001, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) management of property and found, among other things, that the INS did not have adequate controls over property, including weapons. In particular, the audit noted that the INS classified more than 500 weapons as lost, missing, or stolen. After that audit, the FBI began reviewing its weapons and laptop computers and reported that many were missing. In response to the concerns about the Department's accountability for its weapons and laptop computers, the Attorney General requested that the OIG review controls over this property throughout the Department of Justice (Department). This property is sensitive in nature and its loss could result in danger to the public or could compromise national security or law enforcement activities. The OIG, therefore, individually audited and reported on the controls over weapons and laptop computers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the United States Marshals Service (USMS), referred to collectively in this summary report as the components. In total, the components reported an inventory of about 150,000 weapons and 25,000 laptop computers.' We examined the life cycle of this sensitive property at each component, ranging from purchase, receipt and assignment, physical inventories, loss reports and management response, return of equipment from separated employees, through the disposal of property. This capping report summarizes the findings of our individual component audits and analyzes the Department's actions related to accountability for weapons and laptop computers.2 1 Since the OIG audited the INS's management of property in March 2001, we did not include it in this special review of weapons and laptop computers. However, whenever possible the results of our INS audit are incorporated in this summary report. For example, the inventory of 150,000 weapons includes the INS, but because the INS audit did not specifically include laptop computers, the inventory of 25,000 items does not include the INS. 2 It is important to note that our results for the different components reflect somewhat different time periods, as noted in Appendix I, because the components were not always able to provide information for specific cutoff dates. The BOP, DEA, and USMS audits cover weapons and laptop computers that were reported lost, missing, or stolen between October 1999 and August 2001. The FBI audit covers weapons and laptop computers that were reported lost, missing, or stolen between October 1, 1999 and January 31, 2002. Finally, the losses shown for the INS cover property lost over an extended period, as we reported in our INS audit.