Interior Employees Surf Sex, Gambling Websites, Review Finds

Employees of the U.S. Department of the Interior waste $2,027,887.68 worth of taxpayer time annually surfing sexually explicit, gambling, gaming, and auction websites while at work, according to an investigative report issued by the Department's own Office of Inspector General (OIG).

During a 1 week review of employee computer logs, the OIG found 4,732 log entries relating to sexually explicit and gambling websites that had been accessed by Interior Department computers. The review did not examine employee visits to other forms of non-work related websites, or non-work related use of email.

More alarming was our finding regarding access to on-line game and auction websites: we discovered over 1,000,000 log entries where 7,763 Department computer users spent over 2,004 hours accessing game and auction sites during that same week. Over a period of 1 year, these veritable shopping and gaming binges could account for 104,221 hours of lost productivity.

The OIG further estimates that the equivalent of 50 full time Interior Department employees spend all their work hours surfing Internet on-line gaming and auction websites over the course of a year.

The report, Excessive Indulgences Personal Use of the Internet at the Department of the Interior," [.pdf] [.txt] can be viewed or downloaded from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General's website.

Also See:
Another 1,138 Government Laptop PCs Missing
About the Department of the Interior
About the Inspectors General