Audit: UNC staffer used false Social Security ID

A state audit released Tuesday found that a 30-year "higher-level" employee at UNC-Chapel Hill had been providing the Social Security number of a dead person to university officials for identification purposes.

Chris Mears, a spokesman for the State Auditor's office, said the office is prohibited from identifying the employee, who retired earlier this month. But he said the employee was a “higher-level” employee who had worked there a little over 30 years. Mears said the employee was not a faculty member.

UNC-CH officials said they could not identify the former employee or comment further because it is a personnel issue.

In their written response to the audit, they said that they had made several attempts to get the employee to explain why he had given them an invalid Social Security number. They also said that federal regulations warn employers not to arbitrarily suspend, discipline or fire an employee on the basis of a questionable Social Security number because that could trigger a violation of state or federal law.

"The University believes that it exercised due diligence in notifying the individual of the issue and repeatedly requesting that the individual resolve the discrepancy with the (Social Security Administration)," the response said.

State Auditor Les Merritt has conducted several audits of state agency employment records over the past several months to determine if illegal immigrants are in state jobs.

It was not clear in the audit if the former employee is an illegal immigrant. Mears said the retiree is collecting a state pension.

The university began using Social Security numbers in 2001 for verification purposes.