The Internal Revenue Service is still paying bonuses to nearly 2,000 bad employees — including more than two dozen tax-cheats — despite stepped-up screening, The Washington Times reported Thursday.
According to the outlet, an audit released this week by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found the screening failure allowed $1.7 million in bonuses to be doled out to undeserving employees.
The audit found more than 1,000 employees with tax problems were stopped from getting bonuses because of a tighter screening, but 1,962 employees with discipline problems and 26 staffers found to have intentionally cheated on their tax returns were still paid bonuses in 2016 and 2017, the Times reported.
Other employees who were not in full compliance but had not been flagged for discipline also snuck through, the inspector general said.
The new report is a follow-up to a previous audit that found more than 2,800 employees with conduct problems had gotten bonuses from 2010 to 2012, the Times reported.
"Given that this is the second time TIGTA has raised concerns about the IRS awards process for employees with conduct or tax compliance issues and that Treasury and Congress have both laid out clear expectations, we strongly believe that an assessment of resource needs and timeline to implement the recommendations will delay solving this very real and pressing problem," House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-S.D., and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the outlet.
IRS official Katherine Coffman responded the agency agreed with the recommendations to fix the problem, but said it will not be done until next January, the Times reported.
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