A state investigation has found serious problems with the Houston County Sheriff's Office property and evidence room, including drugs that were missing, guns and drugs in the room that weren't in the inventory and security cameras that weren't connected.

The Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury released the findings Monday morning.

Houston County Sheriff Kevin Sugg, who said he received the report findings when they were made public on Monday, said the discrepancies stemmed from former employees, and he notified the Comptroller's Office when he noticed some of the issues after the departure of one employee.

After the release of the findings, Sugg contacted the District Attorney's Office to set up a meeting to ask for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to step in.

"As long as I’m sheriff in this county, I will be transparent; I will be accountable," Sugg said. "And law enforcement is going to be subject to investigation just like any citizen of this county, whether employed here or not."

Among the specific findings in the report:

"Property and evidence included on the inventory log was not in department custody."

This included 23 instances of missing marijuana and pills, with no documentation that the drugs had been disposed of, the report said.

Investigators also noticed items on the department's inventory log that wouldn't be in the property room, such as a Toyota engine.

Two stolen-property items were listed on the evidence room inventory, but they were noted in official reports as not recovered, according to the report.

"Officials failed to include all property on the inventory log."

This included drugs, cash, and guns, along with a large plastic tub containing drug evidence that had been confiscated 10 or more years before.

"Officials failed to utilize critical portions of the department’s available resources to account for property and evidence."

There was a security camera in the property and evidence room, but it wasn't connected to a recording device, and there was no video record of any activity in the room, the report said.

Meanwhile, the computer software used to create a log of items placed in the room had the audit function disabled for at least some users, the report said. That means there's no record of changes to the log or who might have made them.

The report released to the public did not identify which users had no-audit access.

"Officials did not properly identify and dispose of property and evidence."

The department was storing and safeguarding drug evidence that was more than 10 years old. State law requires the annual destruction of drug evidence that is no longer needed, along with regular court-ordered disposal of all weapons no longer needed as evidence.

"Officials failed to perform an annual inventory."

Such an inventory would have brought to light several of the problems long ago, the report said.

"Officials traded a seized weapon that was reported as stolen."

Department officials failed to check seized weapons through the national database to identify weapons that were stolen or used in other crimes.

In July 2016, the report said, the department traded several seized weapons, including a .22 caliber pistol, to a local firearms dealer in exchange for items to be used by the department.

When the dealer prepared to sell the pistol and checked it against the database, it was identified as a stolen weapon. The pistol was retrieved by the department and returned to the rightful owner.

The complete report can be found online at comptroller.tn.gov/repository/ia/houstonsheriff.pdf.