About 83,000 Defense Department employees and contractors, who held or were determined eligible for a security clearance, owed more than $730 million in unpaid taxes as of June 2012, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Per GAO's recommendations, the Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and DoD are now working to include tax-compliance checks to enhance security clearance processes.
What's in those missing IRS tapes? The ones critics of the agency say would provide the smoking gun of evidence. Is there a lesson for your agency in record-keeping? Yes, but maybe not what you thought.
Agencies should be archiving all business communication to avoid mayhem such as at the IRS. While the agency shifts blame from e-mail to instant messenger, Nancy Flynn, founder of ePolicy, told Federal News Radio that agencies need to better manage the many communication options.
The House has approved a massive spending bill that would slash funding for the Internal Revenue Service by more than $1 billion next year. The agency, which has been under fire for the improper targeting of conservative groups, would see its current $11.3 billion budget decline by 13 percent under the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill for fiscal 2015 passed by the House Wednesday. But that's just one of the the provisions of the bill drawing the ire of the Obama administration, which issued a notice earlier this week threatening to veto the legislation.
InSysCo received a multi-year contract to help the tax agency move to a data-centric organization.
A series of management blunders and agency misbehavior in recent years ranging from the General Services Administration to the Veterans Affairs Department, haven't only put agency leaders in the hot seat — and sometimes out of work. They've also highlighted the importance of better risk-management planning by agencies, current and former federal officials told Federal News Radio as part of a special discussion on risk management.
The Internal Revenue Service is facing another big budget cut if the total the House of Representatives approved turns out to be the total the agency gets. The House voted for a bill to bring the IRS' 2015 spending limit to below sequestration levels. That's a cut of more than $300 million. Jessica Klement is Legislative Director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. She explained on In Depth with Francis Rose how the IRS' potential 2015 budget would affect its employees and other agencies.
Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration employees see the results of budget cuts and sequestration. Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wrote in his column "Alice in Washington Wonderland" why these cuts apply to the federal workforce on In Depth with Francis Rose.
The House of Representatives passed a bill that would cut more than $300 million from last year's Internal Revenue Service budget. This adds to the tension between Congress and the IRS over lost emails.
Thanks to Congressional budget cutters and the White House sequestration program, two of the most important federal operations - the IRS and the Social Security Administration - are getting smaller and slower. So, how much longer can we afford these 'savings', Senior Correspondent Mike Causey asks?
From hiring freezes and furlough days, to cuts to travel and equipment upgrades, the IRS generally 'took reasonable steps' to plan for sequestration, according to a new audit.
The IRS keeps revealing more instances of lost emails of employees in its tax exempt division. This week's revelation from the House Ways and Means Committee follows Friday's disclosure that a computer crash eliminated thousands of emails from former division chief Lois Lerner. Investigators now say another six division employees had their computers crash. Two Republican lawmakers call on the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS. Commissioner John Koskinen faces skeptical members of Congress today. Dan Metcalfe is an American University law professor and executive director of the Collaboration on Government Secrecy. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss the records management side of this issue.
With an employment drop over the past year, agencies must adopt a "less with less" mentality, according Bob Tobias, director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University. He says executives must be honest with Congress about their limited capabilities.
The Government Accountability Office recommended the IRS develop long-term strategies and use ROI data comparisons to better operate with a less-than-ideal budget.
The newly adopted "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" will help IRS employees provide better service to taxpayers and sends a "message to Congress."