August 24, 2001

Inspection of Selected Office of Security and Emergency Operations Firearms Inventories

The Department of Energy (DOE) maintains a large inventory of firearms for use by protective forces at numerous DOE sites and for training at the Nonproliferation and National Security Institute (NNSI), formerly the Central Training Academy. Some excess firearms, as well as firearms that are not needed to meet current operational requirements, are stored by the Office of Security and Emergency Operations (SO) at its Headquarters facility at Germantown, Maryland, and at the NNSI facility at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Strict inventory controls are necessary for these firearms, which are considered “sensitive” property. The objective of our review was to determine the adequacy of SO inventory controls for selected firearms stored at its Headquarters and NNSI facilities.