WASHINGTON — The Indian Health Service has lost at least $15.8 million worth of equipment and later falsified documents to cover up some of those losses, according to congressional investigators.
The 5,000 pieces of lost or stolen equipment included a computer that contained more than 800 Social Security numbers and sensitive health information. Also missing are trucks, tractors, all-terrain vehicles and about a third of information-technology items from the agency’s headquarters in Rockville, Md.
The Government Accountability Office estimated losses between the 2004 and 2007 budget years in a report released Monday.
Health and Human Services officials agreed with many of the investigators’ recommendations but said there were inaccuracies in the investigators’ descriptions of some cases.
