SciAm blows the lid off some questionable activity in America’s science administration that wasn’t really related to research:
Among the IG’s findings: “Six cases of viewing, downloading, saving and/or sharing pornographic images or videos, and one case of extensive participation in pornographic chat Web sites and the concomitant significant waste of official time.” None of the offenders are identified in the report.
Some other highlights:
* A senior official spent two years “repeatedly and excessively” surfing porn sites at the office and 20 percent of his work hours having “sexually explicit chats” with women online. His activities amounted to a potential loss of more than $58,000 for the NSF – and more than $40,300 of his own money. His exploits “adversely affected the workplace, making it offensive and hostile,” the report says. The official retired when he was told that he would be dismissed, says NSF spokesperson Jeff Nesbit.
* Action is pending against another employee who continued to use peer-to-peer software to store porn on his NSF computer after being reprimanded and told to stop. He also sent pornographic images and videos via email from his NSF account and surfed porn sites during his workday.
* Other employees were verbally admonished or briefly suspended for porn found on their hard drives. Staff who saw the workers viewing porn or heard explicit sounds emanating from their colleagues’ computers “were acutely embarrassed,” the report says.
Sorry, government science funders. Party’s over. Get back to work.