EPA watchdog uncovers warehouse filled with surplus
Raising questions about what could be thousands of dollars in possible waste and fraud, internal watchdogs at the Environmental Protection Agency recently uncovered a warehouse filled with items bought with taxpayer dollars that were sitting unused, while the workers there seemed to have used the facility for their own personal relaxation .
The 17 page report detailed what investigators described as "deplorable conditions" at the warehouse in suburban Washington, D.C., which was leased by the EPA for $750,000 per year, but marked by signs of vermin feces, corrosion, mold, dirt and dust.
"The warehouse contained surplus gym equipment arranged to create exercise space for warehouse employees," noted the report, which said workers had arranged private spaces out of view of security cameras.
"These spaces contained personal items, including photos, pin ups, calendars, clothing, books, magazines and videos," along with "televisions, refrigerators, radios, microwaves."
"EPA management confirmed they had not visited the warehouse before," read the report, which was released on Monday, just a few weeks after the EPA inspector general's office was alerted to the matter.
Among the items found by inspectors at the 70,000 square foot warehouse in Landover, Maryland:
+ "New appliances received in 2007 still in the original packaging that had never been opened."
+ "New, unused furniture received in 2008."
+ "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."
Pictures taken at the facility showed a stack of passports; they were evidently passports for EPA personnel that had expired, but investigators raised questions about security issues due to their haphazard storage at the EPA warehouse.
The full EPA Inspector General report can be seen here.
