The number of missing or destroyed military records at a federal government warehouse in St. Louis is significantly larger than initially believed.
A 2012 audit found that a file clerk at the National Personnel Records Center wrongly filed nearly three-fourths of 1,200 files assigned to him over a three-month period. Archives workers could earn bonus pay through an incentive program for completing more filings.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the head of the National Archives wrote in a recent memo that nearly 4,000 records of individual federal employees were dumped, stashed or otherwise destroyed.
Federal inspectors say another 4,000 documents were discovered in 2011 when an older records center in suburban St. Louis was shut down.
