Workers turn EPA warehouse into their own personal space

LANDOVER, Md., June 6 (UPI) —

Workers turned an Environmental Protection Agency warehouse in Landover, Md., into personal hideaways, complete with an athletic center, an audit revealed.

The inspector general’s report said workers turned the warehouse — which stored EPA office furnishings — into their personal dens with televisions, couches, radios, chairs, books, wall hangings, a refrigerator and a microwave, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The made-over space was hidden from security cameras by partitions and boxes set up by the workers of Apex Logistics, the contractor running the warehouse until the EPA ended the contract after learning of the situation last month.

The report also noted boxes of documents with personal information, including passports, were found in the 70,000-square-foot warehouse.

"Our initial research at the EPA’s Landover warehouse raised significant concerns with the lack of agency oversight of personal property and warehouse space at the facility," EPA Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins Jr. said in his early warning report.

EPA managers who hired Apex Logistics in 2007 for $750,000 annually "confirmed that they had not visited the warehouse before the inspector general’s office briefed the agency," Elkins wrote.

Filth was evident, the report said. Refrigerators were moldy, shelving was unsecured and personal spaces were powered by "multiple electrical cords that may cause overloads, resulting in potential fire hazards," among other things, the report said.

The report included a letter from EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe, detailing the agency’s response after he was told of the situation May 15, the Post said. Besides issuing an immediate "stop-work" order to Apex, locks were rekeyed, items inventoried, furniture was set aside for use by the General Services Administration, and procedures for handling expired and unneeded passports were revised in consultation with the State Department, among other things.

Perciasepe said he ordered an evaluation of all warehouses and storage facilities used by the EPA and immediate action to correct the situation.

The agency "takes the recent situation detailed in the Office of the Inspector General’s early warning report very seriously," EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson told the Post in an email. "As described in that report, as soon as we were alerted to the situation, we worked with the Office of the Inspector General to respond swiftly and appropriately."

The Post said phone calls to Apex officials Wednesday were not returned.