President Obama has issued a memo calling on the IRS commissioner to review the tax status of companies bidding for federal work.
The memo cites GAO estimates that the total amount of unpaid taxes owed by tens of thousands of companies performing government work is over $5 billion.
The memo also directs the director of OMB – working with the Treasury Secretary – and other agency heads to evaluate the practices of contracting officers and debarring officials in response to contractors’ certifications of serious tax delinquencies and to provide the President, within 90 days, recommendations on process improvements to ensure those contractors are not awarded new contracts.
The memo also requests a plan to make contractor certifications available in a government-wide database, as is already being done with other information on contractors.