TRENTON, NJ - The Office of Government Integrity is investigating how a former top executive in the Department of Corrections could have been fired for misusing inmate labor and then ended up with a full pension.

Acting Corrections Commissioner George Hayman made reference to the investigation when he testified before the Senate Budget Committee.

Hayman said the probe focused on how former Assistant Commissioner Carrie Johnson came to be "retired" after she was fired for using inmates to stage a social function for her sorority.

When pressed by Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Clinton Township, Hunterdon County, on how Johnson's paper work never indicated she was fired -- hiding that fact from the pension board -- Hayman refused to say.

He restated what had happened, not how.

Asked afterward how long the probe had been going on, Hayman said, "a few weeks."

An aide then stepped in and said Hayman had to be off to another engagement and could not further discuss the issue.

Since a news account revealed Johnson's departure from state government, the board that establishes pensions reduced hers by $200 a month, awarding her $5,700 a month, instead of about $5,900 a month, a 3.4 percent penalty.

Johnson, then 58, had left state employment last Nov. 1.

Hayman was pressed by Lance on reports state investigators had subpoenaed DOC documents related to purchasing, but Hayman said he was unaware of DOC employees being subpoenaed.