WASHINGTON — The Pentagon promised security improvements after a lone gunman used his access as a contractor to kill a dozen people at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013.
But the newly released findings of a 13-month-old report issued by the office of the Naval Inspector General found security lapses two years following the deadly attack.
According to the report, Commander Peters found “numerous security deficiencies spanning multiple disciplines” which exposed the Naval Sea Systems Command to “unnecessary risk.”
The internal Navy audit of security measures “found at least 10 repeated findings” from assessments conducted over the years since 2009.
The Navy Times used a Freedom of Information Act request to free up the complete findings of the December 2015 report.
The inspector general found that the Navy skimped on security improvements in Building 197, where the mass shooting took place, in order to save money. The investigation also found that private security guards posted in the building, the headquarters for the Naval Sea Systems Command, were unqualified and poorly trained. A safe containing the guards’ ammunition was found unlocked, with a broken door that wouldn’t properly close.
The report also found lapses in the way the Navy managed security clearances even after the deadly attack by Aaron Alexis, the private contractor whose eligibility for a security clearance was questioned after he killed 12 people and was himself killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
The Navy said it has fixed many of the security problems identified in the report. Of the 215 deficiencies identified in the IG’s final report, 85 percent have been either closed out or submitted for closure, and Moore receives regular status updates on the remaining 33, NAVSEA spokesman Rory O’Connor told the Navy Times.
“The goal is 100 percent and Adm. Moore [who took command in June] is not going to accept anything less than that,” O’Connor said to the Navy Times.
