It seems to be a policy of the government under Barack Obama. Employees of agencies are derelict and, as “punishment,” receive raises and promotion. Last week it was the Environmental Protection Agency that awarded workers who spent their hours on the job watching porn and sexually harassing female co-workers with promotions.
This week it’s the beleaguered Internal Revenue Service. According to a new inspector general report released to the public Wednesday, nearly 1,600 of the agency’s employees didn’t pay their taxes over the last ten years, and more than half of those willful tax cheats weren’t fired because the commissioner saved their job. Some employees even got promotions less than one year after they were caught cheating on their taxes.
Section 1203 of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act clearly states that IRS employees who cheat on their taxes must be fired unless the IRS commissioner intercedes to save their jobs.
The government oversight audit exposed 1,580 employees who had willfully cheated on their taxes but only 620, or 39%, actually left the agency.
That means 960 IRS employees who willfully cheated on their taxes only received minor discipline such as “suspensions, reprimands, or counseling.”
The most common offense was claiming a First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit without buying a home. Even after the cheating employees managers’ said they were no longer credible, the commissioner at the time still refused to fire them.
In response to the report, the IRS has publicly said it will try much harder in the future and pointed out that this is a small percentage of its 85,000 employees. In a statement, the IRS said:
The IRS is committed to ensuring that employees meet their tax compliance responsibilities. It’s important to note that the IRS has a more than 99% tax compliance rate, the highest of any major federal agency.
This report, by Casey Harper, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
