Mr. Chairman, Senators, thank you for allowing me to appear
before you today and share with you some personal observations I
have made during the more than 25 years I have been employed by the
Internal Revenue Service. For the majority of these years I have
served as a Revenue Officer in the IRS Collection Division.
Until very recently, I felt a great sense of pride in my job. I
actually looked forward to going to work. Over this past year,
however, I have seen dramatic changes take place in this
organization and, in my opinion, most were not for the good of the
Service, or the public that we are supposed to serve.
In the past, with few exceptions, I felt that management truly
cared for its employees. I find this no longer to be the case. I
have never seen overall morale in the IRS as low as it is right now.
Many of my fellow colleagues have expressed to me recently that they
no longer feel motivated, and many are feeling the physical and
emotional effects of constant stress.
Management fails to acknowledge employee concerns as evidenced
by the fact that they refuse to hear grievances or address workplace
concerns. Managers fail to realize that if employees are under
stress or disillusioned with the Service, their attitude will surely
flow to the taxpayers, the people we are paid to serve.
I have recently seen many abuses by IRS managers as well as
first line employees. These abuses range from the deception of
taxpayers to gross misuse of travel funds I could write a book on
the subject of IRS abuse of both its employees and of the American
taxpayer. Allow me to provide some brief examples.
But before doing so, allow me to point out that I have never had
a performance problem during my employment with the IRS. To the
contrary, I have received numerous annual performance awards, so I
am not here today because I have any axe to grind. I truly hope that
by appearing before you that I can contribute -- positively -- to
restore pride in our organization and reestablish the confidence of
taxpayers.
The area that causes me significant concern is the widely varied
treatment that taxpayers can, and do receive. The IRS' approach
toward a taxpayer can vary dramatically depending upon the IRS Group
Manager whose group is assigned the case, depending on the employee
working the case, and/or depending on the Collection Division policy
in effect at the time the case is received. For example you may have
one business owner who is allowed to make monthly payments on
delinquent employment taxes, while another business owner, given the
same set of circumstances, is put out of business or forced into
bankruptcy. In other words, one taxpayer may have their taxes simply
"written off" as uncollectible, while another taxpayer under the
identical conditions, may be forced to pay their taxes in full, or
risk losing a home or business. Taxpayers deserve a consistent and
fair policy when it involves the survival of their businesses.
Another concern I have is based on the fact that collection
initiatives change regularly. It appears that management is more
concerned about maintaining high statistics than with the quality of
work being performed, or even whether the taxes were collected, or
were just written off. Whenever there is pressure to maintain high
statistics, and the performance levels of the different departments
within the organization are a source of constant comparison, you can
be certain that someone is going to suffer the consequences of such
an explosive situation -- and it is usually the taxpayer.
Recently a local Revenue Officer planned an elaborate sale to
dispose of certain assets seized from a taxpayer. Many of the IRS
employees were invited to help in the effort. The Group Manager was
also present. Even though the Revenue Officer failed to achieve the
minimum bid, as required by law, before selling the assets, he went
ahead and sold the property at a significant loss to the taxpayer.
Property which had a minimum bid of at least $40,000 was sold for
roughly $7,000. Although this wrongdoing was found out and the
Revenue Officer and his manager now face possible disciplinary
actions, the real victim is the uncompensated taxpayer.
In terms of travel abuse, I know of situations where managers
arrange travel to outlying IRS offices simply to accommodate their
own personal travel. They charge the government mileage and
occasionally, even a night's lodging, in their effort to get to
their final vacation destination. A previous District Director, who
had a condo at the beach, would frequently make brief appearances at
the outlying IRS offices while his family waited for him in the car.
When his visit was over, he and his family would simply continue
their drive to the beach. All this was done at taxpayer's expense
while management was telling employees that they had to conserve on
official travel, and that overnight lodging was not permitted. While
this may seem minor compared to many other things you will hear in
this hearing, trust me when I say these activities by management
have a devastating effect on morale.
In another abuse of travel funds, a Collection Division Chief
assigned a Revenue Officer in her office to travel out of state in
an effort to check-up on the work habits of other IRS employees.
Extensive travel was involved and the secret investigation of our
own agents caused significant confusion among taxpayers and IRS
employees alike. When contacted by this IRS employee, who was
following up behind the work of the real case agent, some taxpayers
called their local IRS offices. Some of the local officials
initially thought that an IRS impersonator was at work. In fact, a
taxpayer with whom I had been working was contacted by this "spy"
employee, and contacted me afterward, wanting to know what I thought
was going on. Fortunately, in this case, nothing detrimental
occurred to affect my taxpayer's case, but the manner in which this
secret study was conducted was underhanded and humiliating to the
rest of the IRS employees involved. In addition, if this information
was determined to be of such importance to the out-of-state
Collection Division Chief, why not inquire about such information in
a professional, above board manner, not deceptively behind
employees' backs. The effort undoubtedly would have been more
effective, less disruptive and certainly far less costly to everyone
involved - taxpayers and IRS employees alike.
Mr. Chairman, I greatly appreciate being afforded this
opportunity to inform this Committee of what I have observed while
working with the IRS, and the great disservice the actions of some
of my colleagues have brought upon unsuspecting and undeserving
taxpayers, not to mention each other. When the American taxpayer is
defrauded of their due rights, we all stand to suffer.
It is not a pleasure for me to share such stories with you.
These stories are about my colleagues, those with whom I work. But
my intention to do so is simple. I, too, am an American taxpayer,
and I am asking this Committee to return the Service's management
and operational standards to the level that will again earn my own
trust, as well as that of all tax paying Americans.
Thank you.