The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has effective controls over the weapons in its possession–including items it has seized–but issues remain regarding ammunition, an IG audit has said.
The IG found some data errors in the ATF electronic property management system–somewhat incongruously called Sunflower–for items such as firearms, Tasers, flash-bang grenades and chemical agent projectiles but said that it was able to physically locate all weapons selected in a sample.
However, it also found that ATF’s controls over its ammunition inventories “remain inadequate and do not provide accurate inventory counts. This is particularly concerning considering that prior Treasury and Department of Justice OIG audits — the first of which was over 15 years ago — identified and ATF developed policies to address control weaknesses over its ammunition inventories.”
It found that the ammunition tracking records were understated by almost 31,000 rounds at 13 sites inventoried. “Given that ATF has over 275 offices, the quantity of ammunition that is unaccounted nationwide is likely much greater,” it said.
The IG also found that ATF “commingled different types of ammunition on its tracking records and did not maintain tracking records for some of its ammunition. Finally, we identified concerns related to the physical security of ATF’s ammunition at several locations, as well as compliance with ATF policy over ammunition. In our judgment, these practices create a risk that the ammunition may be lost, misplaced, or stolen without detection.”
The agency concurred with recommendations to address those issues.
