Found 'em!!!!!

It seems that our humble little blog played an interesting role this past week, helping the Bureau of Diplomatic Security find some missing computers and helping the Department we serve avoid declaring a material weakness to the Office of Management and Budget.

On May 2, 2008, an article in Congressional Quarterly (CQ) reported on the fact that hundreds or thousands of laptops at the State Department were unaccounted for, as many as 400 of which belonged to Diplomatic Security's Anti-Terrorism Assistance program.

Though the author clearly did a great deal of research, the CQ article cites Dead Men Working as the original source of the revelation.

The article refers to a February 6th meeting at the State Department, in which failure to account for laptop computers was described as a "serious deficiency" and a possible "material weakness," which had the potential to "blow up" on the State Department.

Then, on May 6th, CQ reported that the State Department now says that the 400 DS laptops (no mention of the other unaccounted-for laptops) have been located.

According to CQ: "A senior official in the Department’s Office of the Inspector General, speaking only on a not-for-attribution basis, acknowledged that managers in the Diplomatic Security Service had lost track of the computers, which are destined for friendly foreign police services.

But he said that they were located “within 24 hours” after CQ reported them missing over the weekend.

“We didn’t start looking until Monday morning, and found that this may have been an internal management count (problem),” the official said. “By the end of the afternoon they found out they were in Springfield or Herndon or wherever they’re stored before they go overseas.”

Now this is the interesting thing: Left to its own devices, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security would apparently never have found these laptops. They may have been in a warehouse, but nobody knew where they were, and "not knowing where they are" is the definition of "lost."

The "lost" laptops were unaccounted for when the "Senior Assessment Team" met on February 6 to discuss the matter.

They were still unaccounted for on March 31 when we reported them unaccounted-for in our blog.

And they were still unaccounted for on May 2, when CQ reported them missing.

For at least three months, while senior officials discussed their loss and Diplomatic Security vans scoured the city looking for them, nobody knew where they were.

But, according to the State Department, a mere "24 hours after CQ reported them missing," they were found.

From at least February 6 to May 6th, they were sufficiently missing that senior officials had to discuss them at a meeting.

They were sufficiently missing that an OIG official felt the need to warn that "a scandal loomed," and that the Department's Deputy Chief Financial Officer expressed concern that their absence could constitute a "material weakness."

But shine a light of public scrutiny on the issue and:

FOUND EM!!!!!

And that, gentle reader, is the point.

For years, we have been saying that if Diplomatic Security will not police itself, if Diplomatic Security cannot run itself in a responsible and law-abiding manner, then other people, outside people, like the GAO or the Justice Department's Committee on Integrity and Ethics in Government, should look into the matter.

Because, left to its own devices, Diplomatic Security is poorly managed.

When nobody is watching, it freely flaunts laws and regulations and fosters an internal culture in which, literally, there is no accountability.

But put their shenanigans in the newspapers, tell the public what Diplomatic Security is doing, and:

FOUND EM!!!

And a material weakness, which "one close observer" described as "the worst flaw you can have in management control,” was averted.

We can all breath easier. The DS Anti-Terrorism laptops have been found.

No need to thank us.

It's what we do.