The State Department is supposed to notify Congress if it approves sales of firearms worth $1 million or more, or major weapon systems like vehicles or missiles worth $14 million or more. Lawmakers can delay or reject an application if they have concerns. In one case reviewed, the State Department neglected to alert Congress of a sizable sale of assault rifles to the Philippines less than a year after legislators quashed a similar export package to the same country. In October 2016, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, denied a sale of 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines. Cardin noted that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had resulted in 2,300 extrajudicial executions. Days later, Duterte called Democrats who had opposed the deal “fools” and “monkeys.” Then in July 2017, the Philippines applied to buy 400,000 AR-15 rifles, two million 30-round magazines, 586 million rounds of ammunition, and 426,448 cleaning and maintenance kits. According to the OIG report, the State Department did not notify Congress before rubber stamping the deal. Officials with the State Department told auditors it approved the application without telling Congress because the computer the officer used to review the application had “dropped” the last zero from the dollar value of the deal, an error neither the officer or the auditors could replicate. A State Department spokesman said the department had since created a new end-use training program, a database of officers who have performed the checks, and is in the process of creating a refresher course. The deal was terminated in November of that year, but only once the American Embassy staff in Manila told superiors they could not locate the Florida-based gun dealer who was selling the guns to the Philippines. The report said the unnamed dealer “disappeared.” The report doesn’t say if any guns were shipped before the termination, and the State Department has no mechanism for clawing back gun sales approved in error. The March GAO report suggests that the Commerce Department could make similar mistakes when it takes over oversight of gun exports. The GAO found that State and Commerce hadn’t yet figured out how they would share “watch lists” of suspicious or prohibited customers. Commerce doesn’t typically require additional checks on end users of exports that it currently oversees. When Commerce does perform end user checks on other exports it currently reviews, 90 percent of the time the checks occur after the good have already been shipped. (State typically checks suspicious sales before shipment). The department doesn’t require exporters to disclose if they offered political contributions, gifts, commissions, or fees as part of sale. Furthermore, Commerce does not have any relevant staff assigned to review firearm sales to the Western Hemisphere, Afghanistan, Burma, Laos, Afghanistan, or anywhere in Africa, aside from Egypt. The department told the GAO it has no plans to assign personnel to cover firearm sales to these countries. Instead, it will provide oversight with staff who either visit the countries temporarily or do not have experience reviewing arms deals.
. In October 2016, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland denied a sale of 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines Then in July 2017, the Philippines applied to buy 400,000 AR-15 rifles, two million 30-round magazines, 586 million rounds of ammunition, and 426,448 cleaning and maintenance kits. According to the OIG report, the State Department did not notify Congress before rubber stamping the deal. The GAO found that State and Commerce hadn’t yet figured out how they would share “watch lists” of suspicious or prohibited customers. Commerce doesn’t typically require additional checks on end users of exports that it currently oversees. When Commerce does perform end user checks on other exports it currently reviews, 90 percent of the time the checks occur after the good have already been shipped.