Hawai'i County Mayor Billy Kenoi said that his office is investigating "very serious" and possibly illegal abuse of Internet access on county computers.

Kenoi said the investigation goes back to January 2008 and includes the potentially illegal use of county computers for political activity, as well as other abuses.

Kenoi disclosed the investigation after Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong, chairman of the Finance Committee, pushed the administration for copies of a computer-use report that county data systems officials told him had been forwarded to the mayor.

Yagong was looking into allegations from some county employees, who say abuse of the Internet during working hours is hurting workers' productivity and contributing to the spiraling cost of overtime.

Yagong said employees alerted him to the abuse of Internet privileges while he was conducting a survey of employees' ideas on how the county can save money during this economic downturn.

There are 906 computers attributed to county employees across the island, not counting those on a separate system for security reasons in the Police Department and Prosecuting Attorney's offices.