Thousands of Customs Service computers missing, audit finds

A preliminary audit by the Treasury Department's inspector general found that the Customs Service has reported more than 1,100 computers lost or stolen in the past three years.

According to initial information gathered by Treasury Inspector General Jeffrey Rush, a total of 1,311 computers, laptops and personal digital assistants, such as Palm Pilots, as well as 80 guns, have been reported missing from the Treasury Department in the last three years. However, Customs has a disproportionate amount of the department's losses, reporting 1,134 computers missing and 62 guns.

The audit was initiated at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Grassley asked for an assessment of Treasury's inventory practices for guns, computers and other materials that could compromise national security.

"At this point, we don't know whether any of these missing items pose a national security risk," Grassley said. "For example, the lost or stolen computers might contain completely harmless data. Regardless, we need to know for sure. A law enforcement agency should be able to track its own computers and weapons. That's common sense. Also, we want to know how much these missing items have cost taxpayers," he said.

Grassley's request came after a July 17 disclosure that the FBI is missing 400 weapons and 180 laptops--including some with sensitive and classified information.

Rush warned that the numbers he gathered as of Aug. 31 are preliminary and could change with further investigation. Nonetheless, the numbers for the Customs Service are striking. The agency with the highest lost or stolen count after Customs is the Secret Service, with a count of 58 computers.

"We are continuing to perform audit work to determine whether the numbers Treasury reported to us are reliable," Rush wrote in a Sept. 18 letter to Grassley. Rush said new information would be released as his office continued the verification process. It is not yet clear whether the computers contained sensitive information, he said.