State employees are prohibited from buying specially discounted goods for personal use from two CompUSA stores during planned sales tomorrow and Dec. 16, because the discounts of up to 40 percent were offered in connection with official state purchases made earlier, according to the state Ethics Commission.

A CompUSA manager offered the discounts yesterday in e-mails sent to state employees who had purchased products from the company for state use, according to commission director Dan Mollway.

The e-mail offered "customer employee appreciation day" discounts at the company's Honolulu and Pearl Highlands stores, and encouraged that the offer be forwarded to all others in those employees' state departments. The store would be opened after normal business hours for the sale, the message said.

"Since CompUSA made the offer initially to those state employees who have purchased goods from CompUSA, the Gifts section of the State Ethics Code would be violated, since it would be 'reasonable to infer' that the discounts were made 'to reward or influence' official action by state employees," Mollway said in a news statement.

The Ethics Commission received several inquiries about the offers from state employees and issued a news release to inform as many as possible about the problem before tomorrow's first scheduled sale, Mollway said.

The offer advertised computers, monitors and printers for company cost plus 6 percent, and computer cables for 40 percent off the retail price.

CompUSA referred calls to a manager overseeing the issue, who was not available for comment.