Commerce Official Hoards Government Computers for Kids’ Porn Use

The reality TV show "Hoarders" dives into the painful experiences of people who accumulate stuff and even animals to the point that it alienates those who love them most.

That’s not the situation with a female Commerce executive who has been hoarding government-issued desktops, laptops, and iPads. Her kids probably love her because she let them use these taxpayer-owned  devices to access pornography and engage in other inappropriate behavior. This new case of egregious abuse by a federal worker comes to us from a Commerce Department watchdog report.

According to the investigative report, this worker kept two Dell desktops, three Sony laptops, and two iPads at her home for at least six months. She gave her children access to these computers where they downloaded and stored pornographic pictures and videos, software for computer gaming, and other material that had nothing to do with her job.

The response of this unnamed executive, whose responsibilities included financial and travel approvals, was probably most unsettling. She saw nothing wrong with allowing her kids to access porn on her work computers because they weren’t doing it during work hours or harming national security.

What she did have a problem with was the investigation into her behavior. She tried to erase some of the materials and retaliated against a woman who cooperated with the probe by taking disciplinary action against her.

This worker stole time as well. Investigators found “inconsistencies” in her timesheet. In one instance she clocked a full eight-hour work day but her security badge only showed that she worked 20 minutes. At a GS-15 level she was pulling down at minimum $101,000 per year.

What we have is an entitled thief with a noxious attitude about her job.

The Washington Post reports:

The evidence revealed that [the official] engaged in a troubling pattern of conduct exhibiting a disregard for and abuse of government resources,” said the report by acting inspector general David Smith.

The woman, described in the report as a senior official, was the executive officer in a Commerce office that provides administrative support to a division at Commerce. Her roles there included financial management, human resources, information technology, property and office space. She also acted as the authorizing official for other offices, reviewing task orders, spending and travel requests and personnel actions and supervising “multiple employees,” investigators wrote.

…

The official told investigators that she saw nothing wrong with letting her kids watch porn on the computers, because they weren’t doing it during work hours or harming national security.

“ [She] stated that accessing such a site would be inappropriate either during work time or when it poses a security risk, but that otherwise she ‘would not feel like [she was] doing anything inappropriate based on what [she] know[s] about the policy is for — government equipment and the use — and the use of it,’” the inspector general’s office wrote.

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When the official was invited to speak at a conference in Europe last year, she told co-workers that “her primary motivation for her government travel was to go shopping,” the report said.

She chose a flight that was longer and more expensive than other available routes so she could partially charge the government for a layover in Paris, investigators found. Her reimbursement for expenses “associated with her own personal, non-official travel plans” cost taxpayers about $1,365.

It can be argued that rather than being a career federal worker she is a career thief. She apparently, made a job of ripping off her employers: us, taxpayers. Her lack of remorse demonstrates the unfortunate attitude that too many public workers and officials possess. They don’t see their work as a service to the public, rather that the public should service their needs.

The cases of these abuses are so commonplace, that we wonder whether more needs to be done to weed out the bad apples and hold them accountable publically to deter misbehavior by other workers.

The inspector general recommended that Commerce should re-evaluate all of its policies from employee travel to computer usage to tighten the ship and ensure everyone is abiding by the rules. This should be common sense, but then again this is government. Inefficiency and abuse are more prone to happen as agencies grow more bureaucratic, which is why we advocate for a smaller federal government. How many more high-paying federal workers are abusing the system on our dime?