Despite determining that thousands of dollars in gifts were unaccounted for, the inspector general did not conclude whether those gifts were stolen or simply lost.
The inspector general said that record keeping was poor, there was no security camera footage to review and that many individuals who had access to the vault have left government. For example, the inspector general said, between August 2020 and January, the vault was entered over 3,000 times by at least 77 people.
The inspector general said that it had no power to “compel” the cooperation of former government employees to answer questions.
The State Department said it embraced the findings.
“We take seriously our responsibility for safeguarding certain gifts knowing that these gifts are the property of the American people and we are going to carefully study the I.G. report and appreciate the I.G.’s work on this,” said Ned Price, the State Department’s spokesman.
The inspector general proposed measures that the Office of the Chief of Protocol should adopt to prevent similar problems, like more rigorous property management system and enhancing the security of the vault.