President Obama issued a harsh rebuke of the Internal Revenue Service late Tuesday in reaction to the recently released inspector general report, calling the agency’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status “intolerable and inexcusable.”
“I have now had the opportunity to review the Treasury Department watchdog’s report on its investigation of IRS personnel who improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “And the report’s findings are intolerable and inexcusable.”
The IG report found that the IRS had used “inappropriate criteria” to target conservative groups for additional scrutiny, caused significant delays in the application process and requested unnecessary and burdensome information.
“The federal government must conduct itself in a way that’s worthy of the public’s trust, and that’s especially true for the IRS,” he continued. “The IRS must apply the law in a fair and impartial way, and its employees must act with utmost integrity. This report shows that some of its employees failed that test.”
Obama added that he has told Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to hold the people responsible accountable for their actions and see to it that the recommendations in the IG’s report are carried out.
“[R]egardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong. Public service is a solemn privilege,” he said. “I expect everyone who serves in the federal government to hold themselves to the highest ethical and moral standards. So do the American people. And as President, I intend to make sure our public servants live up to those standards every day.”