Monthly Journalism Award.

• Author: Kelly, John

"$58 Million in Property Missing from NASA" Florida Today February 16, 2004

A tale of the governmental gothic: NASA, Kelly reports, has simply misplaced $58 million worth of items in the last five years at its offices and stations around the country. The mislaid stuff ranges from "easy-to-pilfer items such as portable computers to the curious disappearance of two 500-pound, ice-making machines."

Other lost stuff included a $324 Blackberry that a NASA administrator lost at a hockey game, and an $850 camera an employee brought to Moscow for, a conference with Russian cosmonauts and forgot to bring back

Though the cost to taxpayers is substantial, Kelly found, it was not out of line with the amount of stuff lost by other governmental agencies. And neither NASA nor other organs of the federal government regularly follow up on lost stuff.

The frustrated, whistle-blowing bureaucrats of this particular scandal are the property control officers. "The Langley culture is, 'Why lock thing up, it is a government facility?'" one...