Report Type
Report Category
Submitting Agency
- (-) Department of the Interior OIG (35)
- (-) Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (50)
- Alaska Division of Legislative Audit (1)
- AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (1)
- Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) OIG (1)
- Architect of the Capitol OIG (6)
- Arizona Auditor General (7)
- California State Auditor (12)
- Connecticut Office of the Auditors of Public Accounts (1)
- Council of Inspectors General on Financial Oversight (4)
- Defense Intelligence Agency OIG (3)
- Department of Agriculture (1)
- Department of Agriculture OIG (25)
- Department of Commerce (1)
- Department of Commerce OIG (9)
- Department of Defense (1)
- Department of Defense OIG (55)
- Department of Education (1)
- Department of Education OIG (38)
- Department of Energy (1)
- Department of Energy OIG (2)
- Department of Health & Human Services (1)
- Department of Health & Human Services OIG (82)
- Department of Homeland Security (1)
- Department of Homeland Security OIG (30)
- Department of Housing and Urban Development (1)
- Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG (41)
- Department of Justice (2461)
- Department of Justice OIG (266)
- Department of Labor (2)
- Department of Labor OIG (68)
- Department of State (1)
- Department of State OIG (2)
- Department of the Interior (1)
- Department of the Treasury (1)
- Department of the Treasury OIG (147)
- Department of Transportation (1)
- Department of Transportation OIG (11)
- Department of Veterans Affairs (1)
- Department of Veterans Affairs OIG (44)
- Election Assistance Commission (1)
- Election Assistance Commission OIG (23)
- Environmental Protection Agency (1)
- Environmental Protection Agency OIG (13)
- Farm Credit Administration OIG (1)
- Federal Communications Commission (1)
- Federal Housing Finance Agency OIG (4)
- Federal Reserve Board & CFPB OIG (11)
- General Services Administration (1)
- General Services Administration OIG (12)
- Government Accountability Office (1)
- Government Publishing Office OIG (1)
- Illinois Auditor General (2)
- Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit (5)
- Legal Services Corporation (1)
- Maryland State Legislative Audits (1)
- Mississippi Office of the State Auditor (1)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration OIG (1)
- National Archives and Records Administration (1)
- National Endowment for the Arts (1)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (1)
- National Reconnaissance Office OIG (3)
- National Science Foundation (1)
- National Science Foundation OIG (14)
- National Security Agency OIG (1)
- New York, Ulster County Office of the Comptroller (4)
- New York State Comptroller (2)
- North Carolina, City of Charlotte Internal Audit Department (3)
- North Carolina State Auditor (1)
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1)
- Office of Management and Budget (4)
- Office of Personnel Management (1)
- Office of Personnel Management OIG (2)
- Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Fund (1)
- Oregon, Multnomah County Auditor's Office (5)
- Oregon Secretary of State, Audits Division (1)
- Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (42)
- Peace Corps (1)
- Peace Corps OIG (3)
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation OIG (8)
- Railroad Retirement Board OIG (8)
- Securities and Exchange Commission OIG (2)
- Small Business Administration (1)
- Small Business Administration OIG (60)
- Social Security Administration (1)
- Social Security Administration OIG (7)
- Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (47)
- Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (2)
- State of Louisiana (1)
- Tennessee Valley Authority OIG (5)
- Texas, City of Austin Auditor (4)
- U.S. Agency for International Development (1)
- U.S. Agency for International Development OIG (16)
- U.S. Postal Service OIG (16)
- Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (1)
- Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau (12)
Agency Reviewed
Management Challenges
Any Recommendations
Any Open Recommendations
Reports
Additional Actions Are Needed to Reduce Accounts Management Function Inventories to Below Pre‑Pandemic Levels
Ensure that all sites understand and begin immediately stamping the ICT received date after correspondence screening is completed, and that individual and business documents are screened with equal importance.
Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to explore adding Taxpayer Relations inventories into the CII, so that all Accounts Management inventory is located in the same inventory management system.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish time frames for and a process to measure correspondence screening timeliness at each site.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should rescind the requirement that only the TEs and the CSRs perform correspondencescreening and encourage all sites to use mail clerks, after providing them with adequate training.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure prompt completion of the ICT review to determine if additional scanners will be purchased.
Discontinue correspondence screening via telework and ensure at all sites that screening must be conducted in the same IRS facility where documents are being scanned by the ICT.
Identify and address the cause of Accounts Management function employees incorrectly routing cases to other IRS functions and work with other IRS functions to update their Internal Revenue Manuals to make it clear that incorrectly routed documents should be returned to the originating employee.
We recommended that management take steps to hire as many mail clerks as possible.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish goals for each of the Accounts Management function’s inventory types and develop a plan for addressing those goals to ensure a timely return to pre-pandemic inventory levels.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment, should prioritize funding and implementation of automated processing of Forms 1040-X to increase efficiencies and reduce taxpayer burden.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should implement temporary solutions for the processing of Forms 1040-X to reduce the backlogs, reduce taxpayer burden, and save IRS resources until an automated solution is implemented.
Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to prevent generating transcripts for manual refunds less than $100 and adjust the frequency that some transcripts are generated to help management get through the inventory more efficiently.
Temporarily relieve employees in the Accounts Management function from having to complete paperwork for barred statutes, so they can focus on eliminating the backlogged inventory and prevent future barred statutes.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs Great Plains Region Did Not Oversee CARES Act Funds Appropriately
We recommend that the BIA Great Plains Region develop and implement a process to acquire the delinquent CARES Act Federal Financial Reports and Annual Narrative Reports identified in the Attachment of this management advisory.
We recommend that the BIA Great Plains Region develop a process to identify and address any other delinquent CARES Act Federal Financial Reports and Annual Narrative Reports.
We recommend that the BIA Great Plains Region develop and implement written policies and procedures that describe the roles and responsibilities of BIA officials and the review processes for Federal Financial Reports and Annual Narrative Reports to ensure submitted reports are complete, accurate, and address areas of concern.
We recommend that the BIA Great Plains Region in accordance with developed and implemented written policies and procedures, provide and track annual training for BIA officials responsible for reviewing Federal Financial Reports and Annual Narrative Reports.
The Omaha Tribe Did Not Account for CARES Act Funds Appropriately
We recommend that the BIA resolve the unreasonable hazard pay costs of $29,574 by requiring the Omaha Tribe to perform an analysis of the costs incurred to applicable criteria and document its determination of reasonableness.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned hazard pay costs of $27,841 for Payment 1 by requiring the Omaha Tribe to provide detailed reconciliation of incurred costs to supporting documentation.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $182,388 for Payment 2 by requiring the Omaha Tribe to provide detailed complete supporting documentation for the hazard pay and indirect costs.
We recommend that the BIA review the Omaha Tribe's revised policy regarding the custody of checks and document that proper controls have been implemented.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $42,067 by requiring the Omaha Tribe to provide a detailed list of the questioned transactions and voided checks to the BIA for its files to ensure these transactions are not claimed for reimbursement.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $10,792 by requiring the Omaha Tribe to reallocate these costs to the appropriate funding source.
We recommend that the BIA require the Omaha Tribe to revise its policy to ensure a complete property record for CARES Act-funded assets in accordance with 2 C.F.R. 200.313(d)(1).
The Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education Have the Opportunity To Implement Additional Controls To Prevent or Detect Multi-dipping of Pandemic Response Funds
We recommend that the Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education develop and implement policies, procedures, or guidance designed to prevent or detect <span class="tx-tooltip" tabindex="0">
multi-dipping
<span class="tx-tooltip-text">
When a recipient receives money from multiple federal sources and uses it for the same purpose, this could be an indication of multi-dipping.
</span>
</span>
.
We recommend that the Bureaus of Indian Affairs and Indian Education communicate the policies and procedures developed and train bureau personnel and Tribes on preventing and detecting <span class="tx-tooltip" tabindex="0">
multi-dipping
<span class="tx-tooltip-text">
When a recipient receives money from multiple federal sources and uses it for the same purpose, this could be an indication of multi-dipping.
</span>
</span>
.
The Three Affiliated Tribes Did Not Account for CARES Act Funds Appropriately
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $237,270 by requiring the Three Affiliated Tribes to provide supporting documentation to ensure that the incurred costs are allowable, allocable, and reasonable.
We recommend that the BIA require the Three Affiliated Tribes to establish controls to ensure that it can determine the appropriate funding source for each CARES Act expense.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $106,280 by creating and adjusting journal entries to reallocate the funds from the U.S. Department of the Interior to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
We recommend that the BIA resolve the questioned costs of $89,623 by creating adjusted journal entries to reallocate the funds from the BIA CARES Act to the appropriate funding source.
Reporting on the Use of Coronavirus Response Funding Could Be Enhanced
The Chief Financial Officer should evaluate the feasibility of expanding the information captured in the IRS’s financial tracking system to include tracking budgeted and dedicated staffing by spend plan requirement area for future sources of supplemental funding.
American Rescue Plan Act: Accuracy of Advance Child Tax Credit Periodic Payments
As detailed previously, we provided the Director, Return Integrity and Compliance Services, Wage and Investment Division, with notifications and files detailing erroneous payments we identified and recommended that the IRS evaluate the discrepancies to identify why the payments were made to prevent additional periodic payments to ineligible taxpayers. In addition, we recommended that the IRS add a stop payment transaction code to taxpayer accounts to prevent them from receiving additional improper advance Child Tax Credit payments.
On August 9, 2021, we notified the Director, Return Integrity and Compliance Services, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns related to eligible taxpayers who did not receive their advance Child Tax Credit payments. We recommended that the IRS evaluate the discrepancies to identify why periodic payments were not made to eligible taxpayers.
On June 29, 2021, we notified the Director, Return Integrity and Compliance Services, Wage and Investment Division, that the messaging provided on the IRS’s eligibility assistant tool and the presentation of information related to the advance Child Tax Credit payments on IRS.gov may be confusing to taxpayers. For example, the link to “Get Answers on the Advance Child Tax Credit” that is located on the IRS.gov main page takes taxpayers to the Advance Child Tax Credit Payments in 2021 web page; however, the links to get the questions and answers is at the bottom of the screen. We recommended that the IRS consider revising the messaging and presentation of information on its platforms to make it clear for taxpayers.
On January 28, 2022, we notified the Director, Return Integrity and Compliance Services, Wage and Investment Division, that we identified 2.2 million taxpayers who had their direct deposit information updated by the IRS between August 23 and October 5, 2021. We recommended that the IRS conduct an outreach effort to inform taxpayers of the possibility that their advance payments may have been sent to payroll allotment accounts. This outreach effort could include sending a separate letter to the impacted taxpayers.
The Director, Return Integrity and Compliance Services, Wage and Investment Division, should develop and implement processes and procedures to include data validation on incoming files from third-party sources prior to their use.
The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Did Not Account for CARES Act Funds Appropriately
Delays in Management Actions Contribute to the Continued Tax Processing Center Backlogs
On September 16, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, that the IRS needed to identify when to stop coding and editing9 prior year tax returns to prevent having to rework these returns (a situation that occurred during the 2020 Filing Season). For example, the IRS needed to send 822,994 business tax returns back to the Code and Edit function at the beginning of Processing Year 2021 to be re-edited to allow for processing. This occurred because these tax returns, although edited, had not been entered into the IRS’s tax processing system by the end of Processing Year 2020. This resulted in an inefficient use of the IRS’s resources because IRS employees needed to re-edit the tax returns. We recommended that the IRS develop a plan to not only limit the number of returns that would require rework, but also any potential downtime in the Code and Edit function so that resources can be maximized for processing tax returns.
On September 29, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our observation that paper-filed information returns were being sorted and batched. According to both Tax Processing Centers, a decision had not yet been made regarding if the information return documents will be processed or destroyed. As we reported in September 2021,10 the IRS faced similar decisions during Processing Year 2020 and destroyed approximately 30 million paper-filed information return documents around March 19, 2021, because the documents could no longer be processed through its systems. We recommended that the IRS determine if/when Processing Year 2021 paper-filed information return documents would be processed. As an alternative to destroying these documents, we recommended that management evaluate and consider scanning the information return documents using the Service Center Recognition Image Processing System while forgoing the data validation process.
On September 17, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns with the processing of a backlog of taxpayer address changes using a first-in/first-out method. As of August 27, 2021, the Ogden Entity function had more than 173,000 address change requests in its ending inventory. In our discussions with Ogden Entity function management, they estimated that due to the backlog of inventory, more than 50 percent of the address change requests the staff were working had already been made by other means, e.g., the filing of a tax return that automatically updates the taxpayer’s address. As such, Entity function employees were needlessly expending resources working address change requests for which the address was already updated. We recommended that the IRS evaluate changing the order in which address changes are worked to a last-in/first-out method.
On October 21, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns related to the accuracy of information communicated to taxpayers regarding transcript request methods. For example, our review of information posted on IRS.gov found that non-paper-based methods for requesting tax transcripts were not communicated clearly. Whereas, the Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, and Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, provide information for automated self-help service tools. We also found that the instructions on the Forms 4506 and 4506-T do not align with the website wording and could cause confusion for taxpayers. We recommended that IRS management update IRS.gov to provide clear communications on available resources. This includes updating the Forms 4506 and 4506-T tip sections to match IRS.gov language and conducting outreach to encourage individual taxpayers to obtain tax transcripts using the various automated methods.
On September 16, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns about the printing capacity of the new electronic fax (e-fax) equipment in the Error Resolution System functional area, noting that this new equipment can only print about 20,000 to 30,000 pages/month (approximately 240,000/year) whereas, the prior equipment printed roughly 2 million documents per year. In addition, in the three months since Ogden received this new equipment, it has burned out and needed new parts. Although Ogden ordered new multifunctional print devices, those were not to be delivered until January 2022. As a workaround, Ogden used two printers that had a capacity of about 15,000 pages per month. We recommended that the Submission Processing function collaborate with Managed Print Services and the Information Technology organization to identify and expeditiously resolve all instances of printer capacity, break/fix, etc. issues that are causing work stoppages in the Tax Processing Centers.
On December 17, 2021, we notified the Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, of our concern that the resources assigned to the RAIVS unit were not commensurate between the Kansas City and Ogden Tax Processing Centers. In our discussions, IRS management advised that taxpayer tax transcript requests had been previously transshipped from the Kansas City Tax Processing Center to the Austin Tax Processing Center with the last transshipment of work occurring in October 2021. On January 11, 2022, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of the same concern noting that during our December 2021 walkthroughs, Kansas City management stated they have 70 full-time employees in the RAIVS/Income Verification Express Service’s unit. Whereas, Ogden management stated they have 183 full-time employees. As of December 10, 2021, the Kansas City RAIVS unit had over 751,000 unprocessed requests compared to a little more than 145,000 unprocessed requests in the Ogden RAIVS unit. We recommended that the IRS evaluate alternatives to address the volume of RAIVS inventory at the Kansas City Tax Processing Center. This should include an evaluation of the capacity to reallocate staffing at the Kansas City Tax Processing Center to assist the RAIVS unit, and/or realignment of work among the various Tax Processing Centers, i.e., transship inventory from Kansas City to Ogden.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should immediately take steps to address the imbalance of Tax Processing Center staffing and inventory to address the continued backlog of transcript requests.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a detailed strategy to show how current and future staffing resources, including available surge team members, will be used to address the significant backlog of amended returns in the Submission Processing function’s inventory.
The Commissioner, Wage and Investment, should ensure that the various products and IRS.gov landing pages are updated to reflect acceptable methods for faxing information to the IRS.