Everson Realigns Commissioner�s Office,
Fills Critical Vacancies

WASHINGTON - In his third week on the job, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson has realigned the agency´s management structure and filled several key executive vacancies.

“The transformation of the IRS remains a work in progress,” Everson said. “The realignment of the Commissioner´s office will help ensure accountability and clarify responsibilities so we can improve taxpayer service, continue modernization efforts and strengthen enforcement initiatives.”

The realignment of the management team includes the creation of an additional Deputy Commissioner position to oversee operations support. The two Deputy positions will be:

Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. Bob Wenzel will supervise the agency´s four business units along with Criminal Investigation and the Office of Professional Responsibility.

The Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement will continue the drive for better taxpayer service. In addition, Wenzel will focus on prioritizing enforcement initiatives and reducing unnecessary delays in enforcement processes.

Everson said the IRS must bring the same focus and energy to improving enforcement´s business processes as it does to improving the service side of the agency. “It´s unacceptable that a corporate audit takes five years on average from the date of filing to complete. And two years is too long to get ready to present a criminal case to the Department of Justice,” Everson said.

Wenzel, currently the Deputy Commissioner, served as Acting Commissioner from November 2002 until earlier this month. He has worked at the IRS since 1963 in a variety of leadership roles. Wenzel will remain in the position until his previously announced retirement this fall.

The IRS will embark on an external search for Wenzel´s replacement. The IRS has gained valuable insight by bringing in people from the private-sector. The agency will continue to embrace an outside perspective on tax administration matters to complement the crucial institutional knowledge of current IRS leaders.

Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support. John Dalrymple will supervise the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Information Officer, the Chief Human Capital Officer, Agency Wide Shared Services and the agency´s Information Technology and physical security operations. Dalrymple currently serves as Wage and Investment Division Commissioner. He has held a variety of positions since joining the IRS in 1975, including IRS Chief and Deputy Chief Operations Officer.

In Dalrymple´s new role, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support will own the modernization program and drive productivity across the organization.

As part of the IRS reorganization in 2000, the agency divided its primary operations into four business units centered around unique groups of taxpayers. “The reorganization along customer segments is working and does not need to be revisited,” Everson said.

The leaders of these units were also announced today:

Wage and Investment Division Commissioner. Henry O. Lamar Jr. will replace Dalrymple in the top position in W&I, a 45,000-employee organization responsible for serving 122 million taxpayers with wage or investment income.

Currently, Lamar is the Deputy Taxpayer Advocate, the part of the agency responsible for ensuring fair treatment of taxpayers. Lamar, who began work at the IRS in 1971, is familiar with service and compliance issues related to the individual wage-earning taxpayer from his work in a number of executive positions across the country, including serving as a District Director and Assistant Regional Commissioner.

Small Business / Self-Employed Division Commissioner. Dale Hart will be the new leader of SB/SE, responsible for serving about 45 million taxpayers, including small businesses and the self-employed. SB/SE, which has nearly 44,000 employees, also plays a key role in tax compliance at the agency.

Hart, currently SB/SE Deputy Commissioner, has been active in a variety of IRS enforcement operations and leadership roles. Hart, who joined the IRS in 1967, plays a leading role in the agency´s efforts to combat abusive tax schemes and offshore tax evasion. Hart also helped establish new agency audit priorities, including increased attention on high-income taxpayers.

Large and Mid-Size Business Division Commissioner. Deborah Nolan will lead the LMSB organization, which serves corporations, subchapter S corporations and partnerships with assets greater than $10 million. LMSB has about 5,900 employees serving more than 200,000 taxpayers.

Nolan, currently LMSB´s Deputy Commissioner, helped design the LMSB organization as part of the IRS reorganization. Nolan has built a strong background with the technical aspects of corporate tax administration and other elements of tax enforcement and administration. She joined the IRS in 1972.

Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division Commissioner. Evelyn Petschek will remain Commissioner of TE/GE, an organization of 2,400 employees serving three million taxpayers in the Employee Plans, Exempt Organizations and Government Entities areas.

Previously, Petschek served as IRS Assistant Commissioner, Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations from 1996 through 1999. Before joining the IRS in 1993, she served in the Treasury Department´s Office of Tax Policy as Benefits Tax Counsel.

“I´m confident these four leaders of the business units will allow the IRS to realize its goals of better taxpayer service, respect for taxpayer rights and enhanced compliance with the law,” Everson said.

Additional appointments announced today:

Chief Information Officer. W. Todd Grams, currently the Chief Financial Officer, will take over leadership of the information technology area. In this role, Grams will oversee the agency´s critical efforts to modernize information technology. He will focus on delivering key technology modernization improvements to taxpayers, including replacing the decades-old Master File system.

Grams joined the IRS in February 2001 following more than two decades of work at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget. His leadership at the agency helped the IRS obtain its first-ever clean financial opinion from GAO.

“Todd´s current position of CFO has afforded him a unique understanding of the challenges facing the IRS in the modernization arena,” Everson said. “He has the leadership skills and the energy to direct this important effort.”

Commissioner´s Chief of Staff. Kevin M. Brown, currently SB/SE Division Counsel, becomes Chief of Staff to Everson.

Brown has filled several valuable roles at the agency, including serving as Assistant to the Commissioner beginning in March 1998. He participated in the agency´s part of developing the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. Previously, he worked as an attorney and Counsel at the Justice Department from 1987-98.

These appointments will take effect June 1.

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