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Report: IRS Re-Hired Problem Employees

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Approximately 11 percent of the employees the IRS rehired between Oct. 2009 and Sept. 2013 had conduct and performance issues during their prior employment at the agency, including failure to pay their taxes and accessing taxpayer accounts without permission.

Around one in five of the rehired employees with problems during their first stint with the IRS had new issues after being brought back into the fold.

This information comes from a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

The report was officially released on Dec. 30, but only published online on Thursday.

Out of 73,000 employees the IRS hired between Oct. 2009 and Sept. 2013, nearly 10 percent — or 7,168 — had previously worked at the agency. Seventy-eight percent of the rehires were for temporary or seasonal positions.

While the watchdog notes that most rehired employees had no issues in their work history, 824 of the rehired total — or 11 percent — did.

TIGTA report

Five rehired employees were found to have “willfully not filed their tax returns.”

Another 141 had prior tax issues, and 108 had conduct issues during their initial tenure that had occurred within the last five years.

Three rehired employees had been terminated from the IRS for abusing their leave. In the most egregious case, an individual was fired after having been absent without leave for 312 hours. The employee was rehired despite a note in their case file that stated “do not hire.”

Of the rehired employees with serious misconduct issues during the prior employment at the IRS, 11 had accessed taxpayer accounts without authorization. Seventeen had falsified employment forms as well as official and unofficial documents.

According to TIGTA, this poses a problem for the agency and taxpayers alike.

“Rehiring prior employees who have experienced conduct and performance issues during their prior IRS employment presents increased risk to the IRS and taxpayers,” TIGTA’s report states.

TIGTA also found a high incidence of recidivism — 20 percent — among rehired employees who had prior issues in their work history.

“Of the 323 former employees hired between January 1, 2010, and July 27, 2013, with substantiated or unresolved prior conduct or performance issues, we determined that nearly 20 percent had new conduct or performance issues, such as tax noncompliance, attempted unauthorized access to tax account information, and leave abuse, while others had new legal or off-duty issues, such as bankruptcy,” TIGTA found.

“This is significant because the time spent by IRS managers addressing performance and conduct issues is time taken away from serving taxpayers and enforcing the tax law,” TIGTA asserted.

According to the watchdog, the oversight stems from IRS management’s processing of employment applications. The agency does not place enough emphasis on conduct and performance issues in making hiring decisions, TIGTA determined.

“During the process of evaluating qualifications of applicants, prior IRS conduct and performance issues do not play a significant role in deciding the candidates who are best qualified for hiring,” the report states.

“We are concerned that the IRS may not be adequately considering prior performance issues when selecting former employees for hire.”

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