Tweet
Va. worker played video game for 28 hours
A Virginia Department of Transportation employee spent nearly 30 hours of department time over two weeks playing "Civilization IV," a computer role-playing game, according to a state audit.
In response to a complaint that Matthew Bolick, a Culpeper District land use engineer, was spending about six hours a day on personal use of the Internet on his computer, the state began monitoring his activity in February.
From Feb. 16 to March 3, he spent about 28 hours playing the game. He also checked various shopping websites, sports websites, Wikipedia and his children's swim team website, the audit found.
Bolick's wife, son and daughter were also using his state computer at night and on weekends, the audit found.
The audit said Bolick's game playing represented "excessive personal use on a consistent basis during work days." He spent most of his online time playing "Sid Meier's Civilization IV," an award-winning 2005 installment of Meier's popular turn-based computer game that allows players to build empires over the course of thousands of years in game time.
The audit describes it as "an interactive medieval war game that requires a high degree of user interaction."
Personal internet usage that is more than "incidental and occasional" is a violation of state policy.
The audit also cited Bolick for visiting a "questionable website" on the computer during a weekend. The site, Cracked.com, bills itself as "America's only humor site since 1958."
The cost of the investigation totaled more than $3,500, while the amount of fraud, waste or abuse identified -- 28 hours of game playing at a $39.90-an-hour pay rate -- was $1,117.20.
Calls to Bolick were not returned.
VDOT declined to comment on the specific case and said state law prevents the department from revealing whether Bolick was disciplined as a result of the audit's findings, according to VDOT spokesman Joe Vagi.
Comment