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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Pentagon inspectors say officials at Utah's Hill Air Force Base and three other facilities often approved selling surplus computers and guidance equipment without removing all classified data or components.
The equipment included guidance and control systems for missiles, infrared or laser tracking systems, safety and arming devices and more.
Some items were caught by inspectors before sales occurred but others were sold, according to Air Force Audit Agency reports obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Hill's Ogden Air Logistics Center said it researched the items it released as surplus and concluded they "do not present a danger to the public. The assets contained no classified, sensitive or controlled information," the News reported in a copyright story Monday.
However, inspectors said such risky release easily could have happened because of scores of errors were found in spot checks at Ogden and the Air Force's other two logistics centers -- Warner Robins in Georgia and Oklahoma City -- and at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
Those four bases manage thousands of weapons, aircraft parts and other types of equipment. They decide how much demilitarization of items is needed before their sale as surplus.
Random sampling by inspectors found that officials at Ogden had the wrong codes for demilitarization for 52 percent of items reviewed, Lackland had miscoded 50 percent, Warner Robins miscoded 42 percent and Oklahoma City had miscoded 33 percent.
It said that in Ogden's records, a flight simulator trainer "valued at $52 million was coded as 'no demilitarization necessary' when it should have been coded as a Security Classified Item, requiring demilitarization before physical transfer to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office."
Some other items that inspectors said were miscoded by officials at Ogden included a warhead subassembly for a guided missile, a safety and arming device, a guidance and control system and an infrared seeker sensor.
Equipment specialists are supposed to double check just before items are released as surplus whether coding is correct and planned sanitization is adequate, but at Ogden, equipment specialists did not property review the demilitarization codes, the report said.
Inspectors blamed most of the problems on lack of training for equipment specialists. At Ogden, 38 percent of such specialists interviewed had not attended demilitarization courses. Also, 56 percent who had received initial training and were eligible for a refresher course had not received it.
The inspectors called for more money for training, which numerous levels of command endorsed and said they would build it into budgets.
The Ogden ALS said, "We have followed the auditors' recommendations by assigning (demilitarization) codes, updating training course materials and adding more training classes. We conscientiously continue to aggressively conform to applicable governmental regulations."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
