Investigation reveals Navy Yard cut corners on safety improvements to cut costs

WASHINGTON - Two years after a man shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard an undercover investigation turned up serious holes in security and said the navy cut corners on safety improvements to cut costs.

The findings came out of an internal investigation in 2015. Hard lessons were learned about how the mentally ill gunman, Aaron Alexis obtained his security clearance and was able to enter this faculty while armed with a weapon.

But a new report suggests that when investigators from the inspector general's office tested security at the navy yard they found shortfalls and security holes that were supposed to have been fixed.

The internal audit by the inspector general was published by independent Navy Times. Many shortfalls were found, according to the investigation. Unqualified civilian-contract security guards, failure understand terror threats both inside and outside the facility.

Undercover agents reported that guards lacked basic knowledge of the navy security rules. Some of those guards didn't know how to properly configure of their weapons. Others didn't know when they were authorized to use them. Some of the undercover investigators were able to enter the buildings where the shootings took place without being challenged.

Fox 5 reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment and they confirmed the authenticity of the report, but say it was part of a routine audit by the navy's Inspector General. The navy says they've addressed 182 of the 215 recommendations and have plans in the works to address the remaining 33.