RALEIGH -- Verizon Business fired four employees and disciplined a fifth for violating company rules in the wake of news the telecommunications company may have given meals and gifts to North Carolina state employees.
Verizon took the action after an internal investigation into the handling of its multimillion-dollar computing contract with the Division of Motor Vehicles.
"We are not providing any further details, other than the discipline was appropriate based on our investigation," said Jack Hoey, vice president of media relations for Verizon Business.
The State Bureau of Investigation has been asked to investigate allegations that Verizon gave more than 60 state workers and their associates dinner at restaurants and tickets to pro hockey games and an inaugural ball.
Verizon has a $51.5 million contract to help the DMV with vehicle inspections in North Carolina. The gifts have raised questions about whether the company received preferential treatment to get the state contract, but DMV Commissioner Mike Robertson said there's been no evidence the meals were a trade for expanding the Verizon contract last year.
The allegations also led Gov. Beverly Perdue on Thursday to expand a ban on workers receiving state gifts to all employees under her control. But the executive order applies to only Cabinet officials, not to departments led by statewide elected officials, although Purdue did encourage those agencies to adopt the ban.
Robertson said most of the meals listed in documents from Verizon covering nearly the past three years show the company buying deli trays and doughnuts for working lunches at DMV headquarters in Raleigh.
But some documents show Verizon employees took state workers to pricey restaurants, including a trip for 20 to the Angus Barn restaurant in February 2007 at a cost of $781.
The DMV first started working with Verizon in 1997 to create the North Carolina's automobile emission inspection program. The contract has been amended over the years and was last changed in 2008 for Verizon in part to provide computers to safety inspection stations.
