Waste of the Day: Laptops Are Unused or Missing

Topline: The seven governors of the Federal Reserve are supported by a staff of more than 3,000 economists who analyze current fiscal conditions. But, according to an inspector general report from March 30, they can’t keep track of their own belongings. 

The unused laptops

The Federal Reserve Board bought 677 laptops for $1.4 million in June 2025 and left them unopened in a closet for eight months. They were finally taken out of their boxes once federal auditors questioned the purchase, but they won’t be in use until the end of this year.

Key facts: When the Federal Reserve buys laptops, staffers are supposed to “tag” them with a barcode sticker so they can be tracked. That usually happens a month after the laptops arrive, but the 677 new laptops were exposed to “significant risk of theft or loss” because they were never tagged.

After the laptops are tagged, it can take months before employees start using them. The Federal Reserve does not know how many laptops are tagged but not in use, and auditors could not figure it out either.

Auditors also found that three employees took their laptops with them after leaving their job. The government tried to contact the employees and sent them shipping boxes to return the laptops, but eventually gave up when there was no response for two to four weeks.

“There are no additional attempts to recover the device, nor are there any consequences for departing employees, such as wage garnishment or a loss of benefits, for not returning a Board-owned laptop,” the audit says.

Missing devices

Other devices have been reported as missing over the last several years, but auditors “were unable to identify how many laptops are actually missing” because of the Federal Reserve’s poor inventory records.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: The group in charge of regulating the entire country’s financial system should at least be able to handle its own inventory.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.