In May, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general disclosed that a senior-level employee was caught spending as much as six hours of his days looking at porn. The IG found that the employee had downloaded and viewed more than 7,000 pornographic files. The Justice Department is investigating further for possible prosecution.
Four months later, the employee has not been fired and is still collecting government pay, Environment & Energy Publishing reported last week.
That prompted Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) to introduce a bill the day Congress left town to forbid federal employees to look at porn on the job.
Many agencies have rules to that effect, but Meadows says they are not enforced. EPA spokeswoman Liz Purchia confirmed that the porn-watching employee is still employed but said he is on leave. She said she could not comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
The EPA’s policy, which has not been updated since the incident, doesn’t specifically address porn:
“Unauthorized or inappropriate use of Government office equipment may result in the loss or limitation of your privilege to use [that] equipment. You may also face administrative disciplinary action ranging from closer supervision to removal from the Agency, as well as any criminal penalties or financial liability, depending on the severity and nature of the misuse.”
Meadows notes that this problem isn’t limited to the EPA. Several agencies over the years have dealt with employees’ use of government computers for activities that are, well, outside the scope of government work.
“It’s not just casual porn viewing, but hours and hours of unproductive time doing things we shouldn’t be condoning,” he said. “There seems to be a need to reinforce agency rules that might be in place, but not enforced.”
It’s interesting how we as a culture are unable to consider the sense in which watching pornography is immoral, but we still have the sense that wasting taxpayers’ money is immoral.
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