If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t get through to the Child Support Agency when you phone up, or why their computer systems continually crash and lose your information, it’s because their staff have been accesses pornography at work. A recent news story from The Guardian revealed that four staff members at the Child Support Agency have recently been sacked for, among other things, looking at pornography when they should have been doing their jobs.
The imbecilic former staff members of the CSA were also wasting tax payers’ money by doing their shopping online with their computers in work time, and downloading files.
In addition to the sackings, another three staff members of the CSA (now known as the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission – CMEC) were also disciplined for their abuse of the computers.
The frightening thing is that none of this information would have come to light had it not been for a Freedom of Information request – which any person is able to make at any time. The FOI was made by the Internet security company Proofpoint. Their CEO, Gary Steele, commented:
“The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission deals with extremely sensitive issues and data about family issues, and it is worrying that staff have been able to access unauthorised sites.
“Apart from the fact they should be doing their work and not logging on to completely inappropriate sites, these employees are risking the integrity of their office computer network.”
CMEC responded to the FOI request by stating:
“Commissions’ employees are regularly reminded of the rules regarding access to the internet sites.
“Every time an individual logs on to their computer system, he or she is prompted to read and accept the terms of the commission’s electronic media policy.”
A spokesperson for CMEC tried to play down the incident, claiming that few disciplinary measures are taken.
“We employ almost 9,000 people, and the disciplinary record speaks for itself.”
Of course, without the FOI from Proofpoint, we wouldn’t have known about this one, so we don’t know how many other incidents there are of the CSA’s staff downloading porn and abusing the computer systems.
Only recently, one CSA employee from their Belfast offices, Jamie Smith, made comments to fathers on a Facebook page that he would happily pay them all to kill themselves. We have learned since then that Jamie Smith has been dealt with internally, but the CSA would not comment as to what punishment had befallen him.
The CSA is to be axed next year amid the new coalition government’s many spending cuts.
Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.
