TIGTA Report Casts Doubt On Effectiveness of Private Tax Collection
Program
Another in a series of reports
by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
underscores continuing and significant problems with use by the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of private debt collectors.
“TIGTA’s most recent report, dealing
with contractor and IRS implementation of procedures covering the
private collection of federal taxes, highlights serious issues with
the taxpayer complaint and concern process,” said President
Colleen M. Kelley of the National
Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
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“The upshot,” she added, “is
that the true number of consumer complaints over this misguided
program likely is grossly understated.” Kelley has been leading
the fight to end the controversial IRS program.
One of the most serious concerns raised in the
TIGTA report, which covers the period from April 2007 through February
2008, deals with the validity of customer service survey data provided
by the private collectors.
IRS surveys of taxpayers dealing with the agency’s
own customer service employees generate participation rates of between
40 and 42 percent; TIGTA, on the other hand, said in this instance,
contractor surveys of customer satisfaction shows participation
rates of only 14 percent—about one-third the rate of surveys
conducted by the IRS.
The surveys are flawed, said the report, because
“the survey selection process detracts from the credibility
of the survey results. This occurs because the contractors’
representatives who conduct the collection calls are also responsible
for offering the survey, which allows the potential for discretion
or discouragement in the selection process (i.e., biased results).”
Another serious issue, TIGTA said, is the continuing
discomfort taxpayers are showing over sharing their confidential
information with private debt collectors. “That makes it clear
that taxpayers would much rather deal with trained and accountable
IRS employees,” said President Kelley. “In these days
of rampant identity theft, taxpayers would much rather deal with
an IRS employee.” More
IRS Announces Cancellation
of Files Contract and Return of Work to Agency Employees
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) decision
to return into the hands of agency employees the work of managing
and storing taxpayer files was applauded by the president of the
National
Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) who has called for this move
since the IRS contracted out the work two years ago.
“This marks the first time since this administration
launched its aggressive contracting out program that I have seen
a major contract ‘in-sourced,’” said NTEU President
Colleen M. Kelley. “Turning over the sensitive work of filing
and maintaining tax returns and their related documents and correspondence
was a bad idea from the start.”
In the wake of the IRS decision, President Kelley noted that federal agencies have legislative authority to take back in-house work previously contracted out, and she called on agencies to be more assertive in using their contractor oversight responsibilities to reach that conclusion.
“Federal agencies should take a long look
at the private-sector companies doing the work of the federal government
and bring that work back in-house,” Kelley said. “When
federal employees are given the tools and resources to do their
jobs, there is no one who can do the work of the federal government
better than federal employees.” More
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