Audit reveals felon has access to ESC files

  RALEIGH (AP) – A man convicted of check fraud is on work-release from his active prison sentence and working at North Carolina’s Employ*ment Security Commission, where he has access to the confidential records of nearly 2,000 employees, according to a state audit released Thurs*d ay.
  Since taking a position as an office assistant over a year ago, the convicted felon has helped perform clerical tasks for the human resources de*partment, officials said Thursday. He had performed more than 1,700 searches in an eight-month period through the personnel database, which contains con*fidential information such as birth dates and Social Securi*ty numbers, according to the report.
  All those searches appear to be related to the job, said state Auditor Leslie Merritt.
  “Although we did not find evidence of improper use of personnel information, we be*lieve granting ... access to this employee, based on his crimi*nal background and ... work*release status, created an un*necessary risk for the com*mission and its employees,” Merritt wrote.
  However, the report also found that the office assistant may have spent a significant portion of his work time browsing “singles” dating Web sites, with 1,300 hits logged on his computer. The computer also contained a sexually suggestive image ac*quired from an online chat session.
 
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