IRS missing over 2,300 agency computers, Identification badges, surveillance gear etc.:

January 9, 2002 3:15 PM

IRS missing over 2,300 agency computers, Identification badges, surveillance gear etc.: A few months back there was another hoopla over missing computers in FBI. Do the internal security policies in federal agencies need a major overhaul or are these simply isolated instances that are more of an exception than the rule?
posted by justlooking (9 comments total)

Oops! Sorry about the double post. I saw an error message on my browser. BTW, I got this via GMSV.
posted by justlooking at 3:17 PM on January 9, 2002

``An agency that requires taxpayers to show every receipt can't find 2,300 computers,'' said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. ``The IRS wouldn't accept from a taxpayer the nonanswer it has given.''

Amen, Chuckie (even if you are a republican). However, this is just the type of rational argument that a bloated government agency neither hears, nor acts upon.
posted by sharksandwich at 3:36 PM on January 9, 2002

The IRS has 100,000 employees. An audit shows they don't know where 2300 PCs are. Subsequent searches turn up 1600. For an organization of this size, with offices around the country, to be missing 700 PCs is ... not unusual, in my experience.
posted by dhartung at 3:45 PM on January 9, 2002

The missing computers were uncovered by a Treasury inspector general during an audit late last year that also found six unaccounted-for IRS firearms and hundreds of lost investigative items such as badges and communications gear.

Dude. The IRS has guns.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 4:27 PM on January 9, 2002

"Dude. The IRS has guns."

Redd Foxx and Willy Nelson can probably tell you some interesting stories about this....
posted by sharksandwich at 6:55 PM on January 9, 2002

Willy might, but I doubt Redd is talking much these days.
posted by AstroGuy at 8:35 PM on January 9, 2002

whe puts the surveillance on surveillance systems? reminds me of a friend in liverpool, uk, who bought a "slightly used" burglar alarm......
posted by quarsan at 12:24 AM on January 10, 2002 [1 favorite]

The more things change... Juvenal (c60-c130 C.E.): "Sed quis custodes ipsos custodes?" ("But who is to guard the guards themselves?")
posted by Carol Anne at 5:43 AM on January 10, 2002

Yes, the IRS has guns. Funny how many people never realize this, and then laugh when they hear taxation equated to armed robbery.
posted by jammer at 9:07 AM on January 10, 2002