Audit: Customs Department Lost Computers

Associated Press | 9/19/01 | Jesse Holland

[al-andalus]

Audit: Customs Dept. Lost Computers

Updated: Wed, Sep 19 8:08 PM EDT

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Customs Service, which is responsible for tracking down and stopping dangerous materials from entering the country, lost 1,134 of its computers over the past three years, a government audit shows.

Treasury officials said they were not sure whether any of the computers held sensitive government data.

"At this point, we don't know whether any of these missing items pose a national security risk," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "We need to know for sure."

In a letter to Grassley, the Treasury Department said its law enforcement agencies - including Customs, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Institute - misplaced or had stolen 1,311 computers and 80 guns during the past three years.

A preliminary Treasury audit showed that the Customs Service reporting missing 1,134 of those computers and 62 of the guns.

The missing computers account for less than 2 percent of all the computers in the Treasury Department and the missing guns comprise less than 1 percent of the department's guns.

Grassley, who asked for the audit, said "a law enforcement agency should be able to track its own computers and weapons. That's common sense."

Also Wednesday, the Senate approved the nomination of lawyer Robert Bonner as Customs commissioner by a voice vote.

From 1990 to 1993, Bonner headed the Drug Enforcement Administration under the first Bush administration. Before that, he was a federal judge and prosecutor in California.

Grassley asked for the Treasury Department audit earlier this year after the FBI disclosed this year that 184 laptop computers were missing, including 13 believed to have been stolen - including one known to have contained classified information and three that might have had classified material.

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On the Net:

Customs Service: http://www.customs.gov/

[al-andalus]

How not to fight the war.

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation.

[al-andalus]

'Also Wednesday, the Senate approved the nomination of lawyer Robert Bonner as Customs commissioner by a voice vote. From 1990 to 1993, Bonner headed the Drug Enforcement Administration.'

I feel better already. /sarcasm

[Pylot]

Given their expanded power to search, perhaps the FBI should start with a quick audit of every Customs employee home.

Duh...

[Blagden Alley]

Given the size of Customs, and number of office moves they've gone through over the last several years, it doesn't sound that bad. A lot of those machines were swapped out for repair, maybe on a hurry up basis, and paperwork didn't get done. Some were stored in back rooms. People got transferred 10-20 miles away, if not across the country. Whatever.

And some may have been stolen.

The average PC doesn't have the same accountability as some of the other electronic boxes around DC.

That said, in my twenty years of watching Treasury, Customs has never been the most tightly managed. They may be law enforcement, but the Secret Service is really good.

[MissAmericanPie]

You all know congress will do nothing about this immigration mess unless voters raise unholy hades, don't you?

[VoodooEconomist]

Pentagon cannot account for $1 billion ... but it hopes to find a needle in the haystacks of Afghanistan? Okay.

[OldFriend]

Just bubba's friends helping themselves to the fruits of OUR labors.

[Psycho_Bunny]

There is no such thing as "losing" 1,134 computers. They were stolen. Period.

This is clearly a major crime but, I wager no one will lose their job over it.

[smorgle]

That's over 375 computers per year, and how do you get them back -- follow the floppies?? Heads should roll!

[ken in texas]

I keep thinking of the line from The Hunt For Red October

... you mean you've lost another submarine?

[Psycho_Bunny]

lol...Your recognition of my Royal Bunnyness will spare you of a session of Thump-Therapy.