Another agency probes gifts

The state environment agency is investigating whether its employees accepted gifts and meals from Verizon Business, a company that provides electronics to vehicle inspection stations.

Verizon gave the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources documentation of meals and a Carolina Hurricanes hockey ticket the company provided free to five Division of Air Quality employees from 2006 to spring of this year, said DENR spokesman Jamie Kritzer.

Three of the employees implicated still work at the agency, he said. Kritzer said the agency is working to verify the information it received from Verizon.

The State Bureau of Investigation is examining whether employees in another state department -- the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles -- also might have accepted improper meals and gifts from Verizon Business. DMV Commissioner Mike Robertson, who took office March 2, requested the SBI's help after determining that criminal acts might have occurred at the division before his arrival.

SBI investigators also are seeking to determine whether the state paid Verizon for hundreds of computers that were never delivered, at a cost of more than $1,700 each.

Jack Hoey, vice president of media relations for Verizon Business, said the company went to DMV in August and provided a list of state employees who appeared in expense reports filed by Verizon employees as having received meals and gifts. Though most of the expenses were meals, there were three non-food items: a Carolina Hurricanes ticket, the rental fee for a beach chair at a hotel and the fee for use of a hotel exercise room.

"We did go to the state and make them aware of the expense items and have cooperated with them, including providing all of the expense reports that we have, and we will continue to work closely with the authorities," Hoey said.

Verizon Business provides hardware and software to inspection stations for measuring vehicle emissions. The company's DMV contract is worth $51.5 million through 2012.

Two DMV administrators responsible for overseeing the Verizon contract left their jobs May 1. Public records do not indicate whether they resigned or were fired.

The state's air quality control employees help oversee the vehicle emissions program. Among other duties, the division tests the monitoring equipment to make sure it works. Kritzer said air quality employees do not administer or have input into the Verizon contract with DMV.

Kritzer could not say what would happen if the agency verifies the information Verizon provided on air quality employees.

"I can't speak in hypotheticals," he said.

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