An expensive, new federal office is so poorly organized that employees don’t know when unsecured sensitive documents are taken from their desks, nor can they identify those that are missing once they’re gone.
General Services Administration documents and property are left vulnerable to theft thanks to the “open-concept” layout of its newly-renovated Washington, D.C. headquarters, according to an inspector general report.
In an unannounced site visit, auditors said they found multiple security risks, including the still-active security badge of a former GSA contractor sitting in an unlocked drawer. The badge permitted access to “potentially any federal building,” the IG said.
The security badge was never claimed by anybody at GSA after auditors revealed their visit and provided a telephone number to call to recover missing items.
The review also found numerous government laptops and documents containing personal information of employees strewn about the office unsecured, while the items that were locked away sat in cabinets whose security codes were taped to the top, clearly visible.
The auditors also found security violations such as keys left in the locks of filing drawers, documents bearing Social Security numbers left in printer trays, and sensitive courthouse blueprints left on tables.
Throughout the visit, auditors collected unsecured documents and “highly pilferable” government items such as laptops and left notes in their place.
“We identified unsecured sensitive information. Due to the sensitive nature of this information, we have taken possession of it to secure its privacy,” the notes said before listing the IG’s contact information.
But many of the documents, confiscated at the end of July, have yet to be claimed.
The majority of the employees who actually did retrieve their items had no idea what had been taken from their work space, the IG report said.
One employee who called to collect his laptop claimed he left it sitting out because his personal locker, which he had opted to fill with shoes, isn’t big enough to accommodate necessary items.
GSA eschewed its traditional office setting for an “open-concept” layout in the first phase of a planned $250 million renovation of its headquarters, which reopened in September 2013.
The new office has no cubicles, no offices and no individual desks. Instead, staff share tables and supplies in a large communal space and are given a small personal locker in which to place their belongings.
The agency refers to this unorthodox style as “hoteling,” referring to the fact that staff must reserve resources that others will later use.
Go here to read the full GSA IG report.
