All records, including electronic records as defined in section 9-16-01, of the employers doing business in this state showing or reflecting in any way upon the amount of wage expenditure by or upon payments for services performed for those employers are always open for inspection by employees of job service North Dakota who are assigned responsibility to do so for the purpose of ascertaining the correctness of the reports, wage expenditures, the number of employees, and any other information necessary for the agency to administer this title. An employer who refuses to submit the employer’s records, including electronic records as defined in section 9-16-01, for inspection by an identified and assigned employee of job service North Dakota is subject to a civil penalty of five hundred dollars for each offense. The agency shall collect the penalty by civil action in the name of the state and shall deposit any penalty collected under this section to the credit of the fund established by section 52-04-22. Information obtained pursuant to this section may not be published or be open to public inspection, other than to public employees in the performance of their public duties, in any manner revealing the employing unit’s identity, but any claimant or the claimant’s legal representative at a hearing before a hearing officer or the agency must be supplied with information from such records to the extent necessary for the proper presentation of the appeal.