The EPA has found itself at the center of controversy after a report revealed a government funded rec room in a warehouse meant for the agency's storage.
It's a man cave, complete with a couch, chairs, TV and weight set in a warehouse in Landover, Maryland. The Environmental Protection Agency oversees the facility, which is leased to a private contractor for $1.6 million dollars per year.
Robert Adachi was the lead auditor for the EPA's inspector-general, who just issued a report on the facility. The document looks like a brochure: with pictures of other man-caves in the same warehouse.
Ryan Alexander, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, is outraged about the discovery.
"We hired these people, we paid taxpayer money for these people to manage our inventory, take care of the warehouse," he said. "As far as what we can tell from what the inspector general found, they didn't do any of that."
The report found personal spaces were hidden from security-cameras by partitions, curtains and piled-up boxes.
EPA officials said they had the private contractors who operated this building escorted out, as soon as they learned what the inspector general found. They prohibited them from coming back, and they began taking inventory of everything inside.
It's not just the little getaway spaces that raised concern. There was a security breach involving expired passports of EPA employees, with all their identity information, lying in open boxes.
The EPA said in a statement that it moved quickly to address the issues the inspector general found. Their prompt response earned them high marks from the inspector general.
Author: CBS News
Original Publication URL: http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-news-jlr-man-cave-found-in-epa-warehouse-20130607,0,1406138.story
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