Millions of dollars worth of Indian Health Service (IHS) property has been lost or stolen over the past several years, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis of FY04-07 IHS property records, a physical inventory at IHS headquarters, and an inventory of IT equipment at seven IHS field locations in 2007 and 2008. GAO also examined IHS policies, conducted interviews with IHS officials, and assessed the security of property. The findings were reported in an issue brief released July 31.
IHS identified more than 5,000 lost or stolen property items, worth about $15.8 million, including all-terrain vehicles and tractors and a computer containing sensitive data such as Social Security numbers. GAO’s physical inventory identified more than 1,100 IT items, worth about $2 million, missing from IHS headquarters, including laptops and digital cameras. GAO also estimates that IHS had about 1,200 missing IT equipment items at seven field office locations worth approximately $2.6 million, representing about 17 percent of all IT equipment at these locations.
However, the dollar value of lost or stolen items and the extent of compromised data are unknown because IHS does not consistently document lost or stolen property, said the report. GAO identified that the loss, theft, and waste can be attributed to IHS’s weak internal control environment, allowing property management problems to continue for more than a decade with little or no improvement or accountability for lost and stolen property and compromise of sensitive personal data. Read the report.
