The National Treasury Employees Union has called on the IRS
to use recently enacted legislative authority in the 2006
Transportation-Treasury appropriations law to conduct
public-private job competitions for functions that been contracted
out, saying they aren’t being adequately performed.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, NTEU president
Colleen M. Kelley singled out the agency’s lockbox program, the
work of its Modernization and Information Technology Services
organization, and its agency-wide shared services mailroom
function for shortcomings that warrant job competitions.
NTEU claims IRS employees have witnessed “abysmal mail service
by the contractor,” including untimely mail and mail directed
to the wrong posts of duty. It complained, “IRS employees are
expected to do the work for the vendor when the vendor has a
contractual obligation.”
The lockbox program runs “the risk that taxpayer receipts and
information could be lost, stolen, misused or destroyed,” the
union said.
It also cited “a consultant’s report” from last year that
raised doubts as to the agency’s ability to manage its contracts
and said money could be saved by bringing the work back in-house
because “exceptionally high-cost vendors” were being used for
work for area-wide data network and mainframe data center functions.
