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By: FEDweek StaffThe inspector general at the IRS has said that temporary hiring shortcuts the agency put in place due to the pandemic created a risk of unauthorized exposure of taxpayer data, a risk that it said still continues to an extent.
The authority granted to the IRS by its parent Treasury Department allowed some employees to come on board without their identity documents being inspected or getting fingerprinted.
The report said that some 1,900 employees hired between March 2020 and July 2021—1,200 of whom began working in calendar year 2020—still are listed in agency records as not yet having employment eligibility documents physically inspected. Further, it said, those records do not always accurately state whether such a physical inspection had been done.
It added that about a quarter of the total hired in that period qualified for deferral of fingerprint checks and that 113 still have not been fingerprinted, 29 of whom started working in 2020. Also, the IG found that 11 employees who since have left the agency had worked as long as a year and the agency had “never verified whether those individuals were eligible” for their positions, most of which provided for access to taxpayer data.
“New employees who are given access to sensitive information and have not been fingerprinted or have not had their employment eligibility documents physically inspected could result in the exposure of sensitive information,” the report said.
It said IRS management agreed with recommendations to review its records and notify hiring officials of employees listed as still pending an eligibility check, and to assure those records are accurate.
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