Massachusetts state auditors have found thousands of dollars worth of computers have gone missing from colleges in the state, WHDH reports:
ANCHOR: State colleges across Massachusetts are getting a failing grade. An investigation found that thousands of dollars worth of computers disappearing from the schools.
ANCHOR: And you're paying for them. Now an official is calling for change. Hank investigates.
REPORTER: Computers disappearing from Massachusetts state colleges. Dells and HP's and iMacs--all purchased with your taxpayer dollars--vanished. So the taxpayers paid for this once--and now they have to pay for it again?
SUZANNE BUMP, State Auditor: Right.
REPORTER: These state records reveal UMass Boston's lost more than $16,000 worth of computer equipment in the last three years. UMass Medical School's out more than $17,000. At UMass-Dartmouth more than $41,000 worth of computer equipment's gone missing. At UMass Lowell more than $48,000. And at Holyoke Community College more than $58,000.
REPORTER: When you see this list, what do you think?
BUMP: I think we have a problem.
REPORTER: How big a problem? We found over the past three years, at 21 state colleges, taxpayers paid more than a quarter million dollars for computers … that are now gone. Even the students realize - that kind of math gets a failing grade.
STUDENT: Takes away from somewhere else that they could actually use the money.
STUDENT: They should definitely pay more attention to that.
REPORTER: Where do the computers go? Who knows. Most of them are never recovered. We have learned Salem State found some of its missing equipment in pawn shops--and on Ebay. Obviously somebody's getting money for the stuff.
BUMP: It means schools are not doing their jobs as well as they should be.
REPORTER: We asked for on-camera interviews about the vanishing state property--but every school official we called said no way. They told us: Out of all the computers on campus, only a small percent were swiped. Don't buy that excuse? Neither do state officials.
BUMP: That kind of attitude, that kind of philosophy, is what breeds criminal behavior and the waste of government resources.
REPORTER: Experts say there are ways to find stolen computers--all you have to do is download tracking software. It's really inexpensive-and sometimes free. Now, the auditor says she's thinking about requiring schools to install trackers on their valuable computer equipment--in order to keep more computers, and your taxpayer dollars--from disappearing.