In a letter sent to Chancellor James L. Oblinger on Jan. 3, the state auditor revealed that a University employee used the Social Security number of a dead person as part of the auditor’s strategic review.

The auditor initially found eight employees using such numbers, but found seven of those to be keypunch errors.

The review resulted in termination of the other employee, according to the letter sent to Oblinger, but members of the University said they could not comment further on the former employee’s status.

Barbara Carroll, associate vice chancellor for human resources, said the fact that there was only one error in all of the University’s payroll information is a good sign.

“We’re issuing 22,000 W-2s and to have one that’s wrong is about a 99.999 percent accuracy rate,” Johnson said. “The numbers show that we do a very good job of checking, and even the state auditor complemented us, and they rarely complement anyone.”

The auditor downloads a file from the Social Security Administration that lists all of the numbers issued to deceased people, and that is how the office found the errors at N.C. State, according to Chris Mears, director of public affairs for the state auditor.

“The valid numbers are all within a certain range of numbers, and numbers that do not fall in that range are invalid,” Mears said.

While termination of those employees the state auditor found to have false Social Security numbers is inevitable, according to Mears, the state auditor forwards any kind of illegalities to the authorities.

“[The proper authorities] would be either the attorney general’s office, the Wake County district attorney or the federal prosecutor for the tenth district,” Mears said.

Key punch errors, such as those made by seven N.C. State employees are not uncommon, according to Mears. In instances such as this, the auditor has the employer search the employee’s file and have the employee fix the mistake.

Carroll said a problem Human Resources comes across often is a mismatch between a person’s name and his or her Social Security number.

“We have problems such as people who have been divorced and remarried who may have changed last names, and the records might not have been updated,” Carroll said.

When hiring new employees, Human Resources collects various documents, including the W-4 and I-9 forms which help employers verify eligibility within the United States, according to Carroll.

“[The employer] looks at the document and if it appears valid, they cannot question it by law,” Carroll said.

As of Jan. 1, the University uses the Basic Pilot program for Employment Verification passed by the general assembly. This program from the Social Security and immigration services helps to verify new employees, according to Carroll.

“Anytime a department puts someone on payroll it pops back a confirmation to indicate that person is verified,” Carroll said.