New IRS system to track whistleblower allegations

The Internal Revenue Service will soon implement a new computer system that will help track complaints about personnel practices made by IRS employees.

Because some of these complaints can balloon into whistleblower cases, the new system aims to help protect IRS employees by providing a reliable, electronic paper trail.

"Congress told the IRS it expected us to do a much better job handling complaints," said Jim D'Elia, chief of information systems development at the IRS Commissioner's Complaints Processing and Analysis Group (CCPAG). "Congress also wanted to be sure that all complaints were investigated and that the IRS ensured no employees were retaliated against for lodging their complaints."

As a result, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti directed the CCPAG to put a better system in place for the tracking and monitoring of complaints.

"Currently, tracking is done on three different systems that don't talk to each other," D'Elia said. "Complaints can be on one or more or all three of these systems. And as a result, reporting and tracking on complaints is difficult and not as accurate as it should be."

Currently, there is no way of looking for duplicate complaints or matching complaints in one system to another, D'Elia said. This is important because CCPAG is responsible for reporting the number, type and disposition of complaints to the Treasury Department's inspector general, who in turn reports to Congress.

The new system will leverage Internet search technology and combine data from multiple databases.

The new system will also accept taxpayer complaints about individual IRS employees on issues ranging from rudeness to harassment. D'Elia says the majority of complaints that come to the IRS have to do with the tax code and will not be entered into any of the three internal complaint tracking systems.

"I would say that the new system helps [whistleblower protection] pretty significantly," D'Elia said. "The system gives a record of who reported, when they reported and where they work. Consequently, if something happens to a person after they report a complaint, we have more information on who was involved."

D'Elia said that his office has been working on the system for a year and expects to complete its integration by June 2001. MicroPact Engineering Inc., a Herndon, Va., systems integrator will do the work, combining data from the various existing complaints handling systems. They will also install search technology from Excalibur Technologies Corp., an Internet developer based in Vienna, Va.