More than one in 10 former employees rehired by the Internal Revenue Services had left the agency with performance and conduct issues, a special inspector general’s report concluded.
The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration was actually released last Dec. 30 but its results were divulged Thursday by the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch.
The IG’s report found that of the 7,000-plus former IRS employees hired back between January 2010 and September 2013, 824 of them had prior employment disciplinary issues. Of those 824, the inspector general said 141 had a prior tax issue and five of them were determined to have willfully failed to file a tax return.
Moreover, the report found that one in five of the rehired employees with past problems had new conduct or performance issues during the period under review.
“IRS employees must be held to high standards to ensure that taxpayers are protect, and there is no reason to hire employees who have already failed to uphold those expectations,” Hatch said in a statement announcing the report’s results.
The IRS has been under fire after admitting two years ago that it improperly targeted for extra scrutiny applications for tax-exempt status from tea party groups and other conservative organizations. With Republicans now in control of both chambers in Congress, the IRS is already being subjected to close scrutiny.
The final report from the inspector general stressed that the IRS did follow standards set forth by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees hiring by federal agencies. During its investigation, the IG’s office was told that under suitability standards, prior conduct and past performance issues “do not play a significant role in deciding the candidates who are best qualified” to be hired.
The report did not say whether the IRS’s rehiring of problem employees was more or less frequent than the hiring practices of other agencies. The inspector general’s office recommended that the IRS work with the Office of Personnel Management to determine whether and during what part of the hiring process prior conduct and performance should be weighed.
The report said the IRS agreed with the recommendation but that IRS managers “believe that the current process is adequate to mitigate any risks to American taxpayers.”
However, the report added, the IG’s office “remains concerned because IRS records indicate it is hiring individuals with significant prior conduct and performance issues.”
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