Internal Revenue Service officials have no way of knowing if employees are abusing their government-issued credit cards while on official travel, according to the Treasury Department Inspector-General for Tax Administration.
The IG audit report said “the design and implementation of travel card controls intended to identify transactions occurring outside of official travel are generally effective and IRS delinquency rates are below one percent.”
But the problem is the agency’s “current controls do not include any steps designed to detect inappropriate or personal use while employees are on official travel,” the audit report said.
At least $121 million of charges were billed to approximately 52,000 individual government-issued travel cards. The IRS reported it has 97,717 employees at the end of 2012, meaning for every two employees there was at least one travel card, according to the IG.
More than 1,000 IRS employees who misued government credits on purchases not related to official travel were identified by agency managers in 2010 and 2011, but the IG said the agency “failed to discipline about half of the cases” reviewed for the audit.
“Because the IRS’s mission includes requiring taxpayers to pay taxes owed on time and voluntarily, the IRS should take further steps to address employees who do not voluntarily pay their travel card bills on time,” the IG said.
The IRS said it agreed with the IG’s recommendations for fixing the problem and will begin implementing them.
Go here to read the full IG report.
Kelly Cohen is a member of The Washington Examiner Watchdog investigative reporting team. She can be reached at [email protected].
