Nearly 100 federal government employees disclosed they have been caught looking at “copious amounts of pornography” at work in the last five years, says a new report.
According to an investigation by NBC Washington, some federal workers admitted to viewing pornographic images and videos for six hours a day on the taxpayers’ dime.
Additionally, the workers acknowledged to “maintaining tens of thousands of adult images on their office desktops.” Some of the images workers viewed included those of underage persons.
A total of twelve government agencies were investigated after NBC obtained records from agency inspectors general using the Freedom of Information Act. These agencies were the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice, Department of Interior, U.S. Postal Service, Department of Labor, NASA, Export-Import Bank, U.S. Department of Commerce, Social Security Administration, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services.
At the EPA, IG memos showed at least two workers at the D.C. offices saying they viewed a massive amount of pornographic material at their work areas.
EPA Deputy Assistant Inspector General Craig Ulmer told NBC the case are classified as “fraud, waste and abuse.”
At the Department of Commerce, internal investigators discovered a patent and trademark employee went to pornographic websites 1800 times. According to IG memos, the employee told investigators, “When I am working hard, I go to these images to take a mental break.”