Some of the actual photos from the investigation
Posted on 06/05/2013 10:09:39 AM PDT by kimtom
Edited on 06/05/2013 5:16:10 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Updated: The actual May 31, 2013 report covering the long-term investigation is found here: Some of the actual photos from the investigation
Blogger's excerpted version found below:
A warehouse maintained by contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency contained secret rooms full of exercise equipment, televisions and couches, according to an internal audit.
EPA’s inspector general found contractors used partitions, screens and piled up boxes to hide the rooms from security cameras in the 70,000 square-foot building located in Landover, Md. The warehouse -- used for inventory storage -- is owned by the General Services Administration and leased to the EPA for about $750,000 per year.
The EPA has issued a stop work order to Apex Logistics LLC, the responsible contractor, ensuring the company’s workers no longer have access to the site -- EPA security officials escorted contractor personnel off the premises on May 17 -- and ending all payments on the contract.
Since awarding the contract in May 2007, EPA has paid Apex Logistics about $5.3 million, most of which went to labor costs. Conditions at the facility “raise questions about time charges made by warehouse employees under the contract,” the report said.
“The warehouse contained multiple unauthorized and hidden personal spaces created by and for the workers that included televisions, refrigerators, radios, microwaves, chairs and couches,” the IG report said. “These spaces contained personal items, including photos, pin ups, calendars, clothing, books, magazines and videos.”
The agency has completed an inventory of the warehouse’s contents and segregated all ........
I don't know. From the lighting in the picture it's hard to tell what color these passports are.
Kenny, (EPA Lisa Jackson’s husbnd) who tests software for Bank of America, often works from home
http://www.oprah.com/world/Lisa-Jackson-EPA-Head-Clean-Air-and-Water/3#ixzz2VMkmJjA8
Those are all defunct. When you renew your passport they always send back your old one with holes punched right the way through. I’ve got half a dozen lying around the house myself.
Great job, Lisa! Who is now working for Apple on their environmental issues!
******
1. Inventory Record System
The warehouse recordkeeping system is incomplete and inaccurate. The system does not accurately reflect the contents, condition, location or dollar value of the new or surplus items stored in the warehouse. The OIG tested 11 items from the inventory system identified as located in the cage (the secured area for sensitive items), and found the following for six of the 11 items:
Four items in the inventory system were not located in the cage.
One item had an incorrect quantity.
One item had an incorrect serial number.
We also noted many additional items stored in the cage that were not on the inventory report, such as new desktop computers purchased in 2005 and boxes of archived records. Further, we found high value items outside the cage that should have been secured, such as portable refrigeration units.
2. Warehouse Contents
The warehouse is operating as a long-term storage facility filled with considerable amounts of unusable, inoperable and obsolete furniture and other miscellaneous items. There is not efficient rotation of paper stock, resulting in outdated, damaged and unusable paper and print shop materials. In addition, most of the warehouse space did not appear to be efficiently used. Our observations raised concerns about the efficiency of EPA’s policy for obtaining and storing property. In particular, we observed:
New appliances received in 2007 still in the original packaging that had never been opened.
New, unused furniture received in 2008.
Large amounts of carpet and ceiling tiles.
Large amounts of stationery and office supplies.
Other miscellaneous items stored in the warehouse that call in to question the effectiveness of the EPA’s personal property and warehouse management policies and processes include musical instruments, boxes of gold embossed EPA mugs, and archive files from the 1990s.
“There was a locked office inside the facility for which we could not determine a purpose.”
DUH!
Looks like EPA needed to clean up their own crap before they started demanding others do the same.
I guarantee you the EPA wouldn’t bend an inch if you didn’t follow THEIR rules and guidelines. You would probably find yourself fined and shut down!
Anyone ever harassed by the EPA needs to read this report!
******
General Warehouse Conditions
Deplorable conditions existed in the warehouse. Door jambs were corroded; dirt, dust and vermin feces were pervasive; and several items were rotting and potentially hazardous. We observed refrigerators with mold, and old computer bags molding and rotting. The warehouse contained large amounts of surplus items and copy paper stored in different places throughout the warehouse.
. . . and still we do not fund tours of the White House . . .
“These conditions raise questions about time charges made by warehouse employees under the contract.”
Ya think? That has ALWAYS been a problem with ANYTHING governmental related. The gov’t doesn’t care about costs as it is not their money - they can just tax more. The contractor doesn’t care, ‘cuz its the gov’t and I’m just taking back what we put in.
I worked for a large (5000 + people) environmental consultant years ago. My boss told me to change my timesheet and put all my unbillable hours to some EPA contract. I told him no. He said “No, you don’t understand. It’s a lump sum contract but we still need to show for the hours, so blah, blah, blah.” We carried back and forth for quite a while. It ended up I gave him my correct time sheet (with threat of getting fired) and told him “Here it is - if you want it changed you’ll have to do it.”
I wasn’t fired. Several months later he asked me to doctor a time sheet again. I just laughed and tossed it on his desk.
Several years after I had moved on, I read where the company was finally caught. They didn’t last much longer after that.
“Saw this earlier via Drudge link. Many loonie comments saying this happened because of lack of inspections due to budget cuts.”
Paging that paragon of virtue Cong. Jose Serrano, who in yesterday’s IRS Scandal hearings said that the IRS problems were a direct result of not having enough of a budget! I guess that the $50 million pi$$ed away on “conferences,” was a necessary expenditure in the view of this POS.
One of the items was about musical instruments. Why would the EPA have musical instruments?
“Man-Caves”...isn’t that sexist?
Ping.
According to the article, the government bought refrigeration units in 2007 that are still sitting in the original packaging. Nobody needed them. Nobody wanted them. Nobody noticed that they never arrived. But somebody had to take money from all our paychecks to buy those refrigerator units.
Same goes for the laptops, the furniture and the exercise equipment. Millions of dollars of equipment gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere. Wasted money when they were purchased, then for years we pay hundreds of thousands more to store them. Wait another ten years and we'll pay thousands more to dispose of all this crap in an environmentally conscious manner.
At least they didn't crack open any of the computers from 2005 to record their workouts.
Been done - Employee of the Month.
any trace of Richard Windsor?
I believe those are blue or current issue. The next question is what is the EPA doing with a box of blank passports?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.