A group of government employees are the subject of a new GOP probe into the charge that workers spent hours of their work day gawking at porn sites, downloading lurid videos and in some cases engaging in cyber sex.
Workers at the National Science Foundation took significant time out of their work days to watch, download and e-mail porn over a period of months -- maybe even years, according to the foundation's semiannual report reported on by Politico.
One senior official spent up to 20 percent of his work day over period of two years "viewing sexually explicit images and engaging in sexually explicit online 'chats' with various women," according to the 68-page report.
The value of the total time lost was estimated by investigators to be $58,000 for one employee alone, Politico reported.
The porn problem became so out of control at the agency that one employee learned of his co-worker's secret sex habit by overhearing moaning over the employee's computer speakers, the site reported.
In a letter sent to the NSF's inspector general on Tuesday, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee Chuck Grassley requested all documents pertaining to the "numerous reports" and seven investigations cited in the semiannual report , Politico reported.
The grant-making agency has set up a software filtering program in the wake of the report and offered support to employees who were "acutely embarrassed" by the incident, Politico reported.
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Grassley's office said it wants the NSF to hand over "specific reports of investigations, audit reports, evaluations and information supporting the examination of the NSF network drive" by Thursday.
