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Treasury Inspector General: Major "Deficiencies Exist" in IRS Whistleblower Program |
Washington, D.C. October 7, 2009. Today the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report
finding that "deficiencies exist" in the IRS program designed to
promote whistleblower disclosures of tax fraud. The TIGTA report found
that some of the major deficiencies were "inadequate procedures and
processes" for administering whistleblower claims, the failure to
"timely process" whistleblower claims, and a loophole in the law which
can result in employees being retaliated against for filing
whistleblower claims to the IRS.
Dean A. Zerbe, Special Counsel for the National Whistleblowers Center
and former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee where he was the
key staffer for writing the IRS tax whistleblower law, released the
following statement on TIGTA report:
"Thanks to the new IRS tax whistleblower law the IRS received in one
year alone $65 billion in claims according to the new TIGTA report.
Clearly the new law is working far beyond anyone's wildest imagination
in providing the IRS information about potential tax fraud. The
question now is whether the IRS is going to take advantage of the new
law, work with whistleblowers, and bring in these revenues. The IRS
whistleblower office has certainly done a good job of getting this new
program up and running and TIGTA has highlighted important areas of
improvement, especially regarding timing and processing of claims."
Mr. Zerbe added "However, the whistleblower office is only one part of
the IRS. Now is the time for leadership from senior IRS officials to
end the naysaying bureaucrats who keep trying to find new ways to
hamstring the whistleblower reward program. The fact remains that
billions of dollars have been brought forward by whistleblowers but not
a dime of reward has been paid out and not a single cooperative
contract has been entered into with a whistleblower. This has to
change. Senior IRS and Treasury officials have a chance to lead and
make the whistleblower program a success, bring in the $65 billion and
encourage other whistleblowers to come forward as well. Congress can
also help by taking the recommendation to pass legislation to protect
whistleblowers who come forward under the IRS whistleblower program
from retaliation."
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Tags: Press Releases, Government Ethics, Bradley Birkenfeld - Archive
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