OTTAWA – Federal accounts say the government lost $1.9 million last year in pilfered property, including vehicles, laptops, smart phones, cameras, furniture and even several dozen military weapons.
Another $8.6 million worth of government property – including some 2,700 more weapons – was lost, damaged or destroyed accidentally.
A lengthy list of lost, stolen, damaged or mislaid articles is contained in the public accounts for the fiscal year 2011-12.
Computer equipment and BlackBerrys were the items most commonly stolen or lost, raising questions about the security of government information they contained.
But the most eyebrow-raising property losses were reported by National Defence, which reported the theft of 56 weapons and accessories, plus 491 items of unidentified “military-specific equipment.”
The department also reports another 2,673 weapons and 3,804 items of military-specific equipment were lost or damaged accidentally.
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