IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in June.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in June. AP Photo/Cliff Owen

IRS Should Improve FOIA Document Retrieval, Watchdog Finds

Storing hard drives and laptops in multiple locations “is not a sustainable electronic recordkeeping solution," the IG said.

Four years after charges of political bias rocked the Internal Revenue Service, the watchdog who played a key role in the controversy has faulted the procedures by which the tax agency retrieves internal documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in a report released on Monday concluded that “IRS policies do not comply with certain federal requirements that agencies must ensure that all records are retrievable and usable for as long as needed.”

The findings were welcomed by conservative legal groups that have gone to court to pry loose IRS documents related to the allegations that agency officials intentionally lost or destroyed key emails related to the handling of nonprofits’ applications for tax-exempt status.

The agency—whose  top leadership was forced out by the controversy—in May 2013 began reforming its procedures for scouring laptops, desktops, computer hard drives and backup tapes to comply with requests from FOIA users and lawmakers. Congressional committees had held a series of anger-filled hearings in which IRS was accused of covering up politicization. Past TIGTA reports, however, did not find that document destruction or loss to be deliberate.

Still, some Republicans continue to press for Internal Revenue Commissioner John Koskinen to be impeached or fired.

The new report, requested separately by the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, found that “these repeated changes have had a negative impact on the IRS’ ability to meet the record retention requirements and deadlines.” The agency’s current practice of storing hard drives and laptops in multiple locations, the IG said, “is not a sustainable electronic recordkeeping solution to meet the record retention expectations required by the [Code of Federal Regulations], specifically, preserving records to ensure that all records are retrievable and usable for as long as needed to conduct agency business.”

The policies, TIGTA found, do not ensure that all records are retained. The watchdog also found “weaknesses in the IRS policy associated with searching for responsive records associated with separated employees.”

Employee emails, for example, are not automatically archived. “Instead, the IRS’s current policy instructs employees to take manual actions to archive emails by saving them permanently on computer hard drives or network shared drives. This policy has resulted in lost records when computer hard drives are destroyed or damaged.” In addition, a recent executive email retention policy was not effective “because some executives did not turn on the automatic archiving feature,” said the auditors. They reviewed 30 FOIA requests and found that half were not fully answered according to the policy.

TIGTA recommended five changes to better enforce FOIA compliance procedures and more widely disseminate guidance on retaining emails from departed employees. The agency managers agreed, notion that a new enterprise email system is currently being implemented and that it has disseminated guidance on retaining documents from former employees.

Asked for comment, Lee Steven, assistant vice president of the Cause of Action Institute, which has sued the IRS, said, “To ensure accountability and build public trust, the IRS should have a strong records management system in place. Instead, as this TIGTA reports shows, the agency has created policies and procedures that make records searches tedious and ineffective. We applaud TIGTA for shining a light on this problem and for recommending reforms that, if carried through by IRS, will help the agency maintain records and respond to requests in accordance with the law.”

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which has ongoing litigation against the tax agency, told Government Executive the report “confirms our suspicions and our complaints on the IRS to the courts about their handling of our FOIA requests and their email retention policies. It’s disturbing, and shows they allowed records to go missing but didn’t tell anyone about it, not the courts, or Congress or the people,” he added. For Fitton, the report “again raises the big question of why Koskinen is still the IRS commissioner.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.