The National Treasury Employees Union cited the report
in support of pending legislation introduced in April
by Congressmen Rob Simmons, R-CT, and Chris Van
Hollen, D-Md. — H.R. 1621 — aimed at revoking the
authority of the IRS to hire private debt collection
agencies who could take up to 25 percent of whatever
they can collect.
“The IRS’s history of contractor oversight is nothing
less than terrible,” said NTEU’s Kelly, an outspoken
critic of the administration’s outsourcing agenda,
calling the GAO report “a serious and direct warning”
about the inherent dangers to privatizing debt collection.
Kelly said the report was “still further evidence,”
that the agency still does not have the internal control
necessary to safe guard information after it scrapped
unsuccessful pilot projects in 1996 and 1997.
The 2006 IRS budget transfers resources away from areas
such as taxpayer support services and toward enforcement
and collections, a move the administration hopes will
yield billions in taxes owed that are not paid.
It sees the use of private collectors as a way to recover
some of that money by handing over the easy cases to
contractors and monitoring them closely — though NTEU
argues money spent on contractor oversight would be
better spent in-house.
The IRS has issued a “request for quotation” from
companies on a General Services Administration list
for work on the program and plans to fully implement
it early next year, the union said.
