RALEIGH -- Employees at the state agency that is supposed to help unemployed North Carolinians find jobs were instead using their government computers to play games and burn bootleg DVDs, a state audit shows.
The Office of the State Auditor began the investigation at the Employment Security Commission in August 2009 after a tip to its hot line.
"This was about much more than just employees using state equipment and state work time to rip off movies and games," State Auditor Beth Wood said in a written statement. "It is also about all the personal information that ESC keeps and the people that depend on unemployment benefits while they search for work."
The jobless rate in North Carolina is now more than 10 percent. .
According to a report released Thursday, the probe found that a systems and operations analyst in the agency's Information Services Section had installed computer software that allowed him to subvert copyright protections on movie DVDs and computer games so that he could make multiple copies.
The technician, Corey Palmer, also had installed some of the games on his state computer, and dozens of blank DVDs were found stacked on his desk.
Palmer, 43, told investigators he was using the movie- and game-copying software to "pass the time" while at work and that he had provided copies of some of the bootlegged material to his bosses, according to the audit. He was paid an annual salary of $70,316.
When investigators checked the hard drive in the state-owned computer of another employee, application manager Michael Kazura, they found pirating software and illegal copies of 19 movies and 14 television shows, according to the audit.
Kazura, 60, denied having any idea how the material ended up on his computer. A forensic investigation of Kazura's computer found a folder containing 533 files that someone had attempted to erase after the state's investigation of his co-worker started.
In a letter released with the audit, ESC chairwoman Lynn R. Holmes said Palmer was fired Oct. 16.
Kazura was suspended without pay for 10 days in November. Records show he is still on the state payroll, being paid $91,320 a year.
Neither Palmer nor Kazura could be reached for comment Thursday
The audit also described gaps in computer security at the commission. Holmes said in her letter that her agency has developed a new computer use policy set to go into effect this month that all employees will have to sign.
