Staff accessed porn in office
SEVERAL workers at Devon County Council have been dismissed after they were caught downloading pornography in the office.
The council insists it is taking the issue very seriously and all reports of the mis-use of computers are investigated fully.
The data, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, shows that in the last three years, a total of eight workers at Devon County Council have been caught using the internet to access pornographic material.
In 2006-07, one person was sacked and was added to List 99, banning them from working with children. A second member of staff was also dismissed and received a community court order.
In 2007-08, there were three cases. One person was dismissed and banned from working with children. A second was sacked and received a prison sentence. The third is "subject of internal audit report, outcome not yet known".
And in 2008-09, a member of staff received a verbal warning while a second worker was dismissed. A third is facing ongoing disciplinary action.
Three of the most serious cases, which resulted in dismissal, also saw the person involved added to the council's confidential Applicants Referral List.
This details ex-employees and others who the council would not "routinely employ or re-employ in posts or voluntary positions where they would have unsupervised access to children and or vulnerable adults".
2 Comments
by BN, Cullompton
Monday, August 24 2009, 3:54PM
“I would be interested to see how many staff from other organisations and private companies have been caught. Perhaps more to the point, do they even bother to check?
DCC should be commended for monitoring and dealing with this issue.”
by tony, exeter
Monday, August 24 2009, 1:45PM
“would it be outragous to ask what postions these people held,
it might be all very well not re-employing them or in sensative postions , but were they making decisions in such posts at the time , is that not a fair question”