The Audit of the Agency’s Parking and Transportation Initiatives found that the NSA Washington (NSAW) had not identified parking as a priority at its Fort Meade, Md., location and
failed to implement solutions to minimize an ongoing parking shortage. The report recounted how, for decades, NSAW employees have expressed concerns about parking. Nevertheless, the OIG found that the agency’s parking and transportation initiatives lacked sufficient goals, plans, and strategies, and that those initiatives had basic internal control deficiencies such as the lack of a consistent process for developing, approving, and implementing initiatives. This resulted in projects being demolished, inoperable, or only partially implemented, limiting or eliminating their value to the agency and negatively affecting employee morale.
With regard to one such project, the audit found that lack of internal controls related to project oversight, risk assessment, and dispute resolution ultimately resulted in approximately $3.6 million being wasted after a modular parking deck, never before built in the United States, was constructed at NSAW and then, due to safety concerns identified after completion but not resolved at the agency, it was demolished without ever being used. In another example, the audit questioned why 50 bikes purchased as part of a “green initiative” to provide NSA government employees with transportation between NSAW buildings were placed in storage after they were purchased with regular bike tires, which over time go flat. It was unclear to the OIG why no-flat tires (which were purchased on bikes acquired later in the program), could not have been purchased for the bikes with regular tires or the existing tires could not have been re-inflated.
NSA OIG made eight recommendations to assist the agency in addressing the issues uncovered by the OIG; the NSA agreed to all of the recommendations.