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∂MLOT
This is the LOTS response to the audit recommendations of August 14.

We are grateful for the effort put into the audit and have carefully
considered the findings and recommendations.

We are somewhat disappointed by the imprecision of the findings, but
we must admit that we knew no way of getting the information we wanted
and only hoped that the internal auditors would be able to get it.

Our hope was to find out whether a large enough part of LOTS resources
was being used for ineligible purposes to justify additional measures
to reduce it.  For example, would employing a bureaucrat to look
more carefully into eligibility recover enough resources to justify
his salary.  Unfortunately, we still don't know how much LOTS is
losing in this way, although the fact that the audit turned up
no substantial improper use leaves intact our intuitive feeling that
not much is to be gained by more elaborate procedures.  Of course,
customs of improper use sometimes develop with time, so perhaps the
matter should be investigated again in a couple years.

Here is our response to the specific recommendations.  Since neither
their expected costs nor their expected benefits were expressed
in dollars, our responses are based on our best intuitive judgment.

1 has been done.

While recommendations 2 thru 5 are somewhat vague, we are trying
to do more in these directions.

Locking the computer room, recommendation 6, is not currently
feasible, because users require access to the one tape drive at
all hours.  Moreover, the consequences of computer malfunction
are often mitigated by free and informal access to the computer room by
users who sometimes do the right thing.

In the almost three years of free access to the computer room,
nothing has happened to make us regret it.  There is essentially
nothing attractive to thieves in the room, and sabotage of computers
is not a currently occurring crime.