IG: A post-appointment issue could lead to irreparable harm to the IRS. Image: AevanStock/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe IRS should speed up and clean up its system for recording arrests of its employees, information that management needs to decide whether discipline is appropriate and if so what level, an inspector general report has said.
Arrests of employees are of particular concern at the IRS, it said, because many have access to the personal information of taxpayers or other sensitive information and they are to be held to high standards avoid any actions creating the appearance of violating the law or ethical rules. “A post-appointment issue that is not identified and addressed or not addressed timely or consistently could lead to irreparable harm to the IRS’s mission and reputation as well as heighten the risk of insider threats,” it said.
Managers are responsible for ensuring that their employees abide by the ethics standards and for taking disciplinary action(s), as appropriate, for violations of those standards, it added, noting that while the agency does not use a table of discipline, it does have guidelines allowing for penalties up to firing where wrongdoing has been confirmed.
In a review of the system that tracks cases of arrests—forwarded to the IRS by the OPM—the IG found that cases over 2019-2021 took an average of 448 days to resolve, more than double the 180-day goal, with some taking more than two years. Auditors also found problems with duplicate records and records of non-IRS employees in the system.
It said the agency agreed with its recommendations to address those issues, including to routinely review cases exceeding established timeliness goals to determine the cause of delays.
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