PDF - Department of the Treasury

Our strategy for ensuring employee
integrity, employee and infrastructure
protection, and protecting the IRS against
external attempts to corrupt tax
administration is to focus TIGTA special
agents on high impact investigations that
protect the ability of the IRS to collect the
nation’s tax revenue.
Employee Integrity
Employee misconduct undermines the IRS’
ability to deliver taxpayer service, to
enforce tax laws effectively, and to collect
taxes owed. TIGTA investigates employee
misconduct allegations, including extortion,
theft, taxpayer abuses, false statements, and
financial fraud, as well as contractor
misconduct and wrongdoing. During the
reporting period, we completed 952 employee
integrity investigations.
TIGTA’s investigative program related to
employee integrity goes beyond mere
response to complaints. We conduct
proactive integrity initiatives designed to
detect fraud in the ever-changing IRS
operations and to identify internal control
weaknesses that may have permitted the
fraud to go undetected or unreported.
Unauthorized access (UNAX) and
disclosure of confidential taxpayer
information continues to be a source for
proactive integrity initiatives. TIGTA’s
Strategic Enforcement Division (SED)
proactively detects IRS employees in
violation of their duty to protect taxpayer
information. During this reporting period,
our UNAX Program led to the initiation
of 259 investigations involving apparent
unauthorized access of IRS computer systems.
OI Promotes Integrity
One of the many ways OI promotes integrity
in the administration of the Internal Revenue
Code is by administering a program of
Integrity/Fraud Awareness presentations to
IRS employees. These presentations help
employees identify ways they can prevent
fraud, waste, and abuse, and to report
suspected misconduct to TIGTA.
TIGTA also conducts integrity and fraud
awareness presentations to the tax
practitioner community. TIGTA views the
tax practitioner community as an important
partner in ensuring integrity within Federal
tax administration. While tax practitioners
have no formal obligation to report
wrongdoing, they are often in the best
position to observe unethical conduct either
inside the IRS or within their own profession.
In either instance, the integrity of tax
administration is jeopardized to the detriment
of the honest tax practitioner.
During briefings at regional tax forums and
national association conferences, OI
emphasizes the integral role tax
practitioners play in maintaining integrity
within the tax system. We made 734
Integrity/Fraud Awareness presentations this
semiannual reporting period.
The following cases are examples of IRS
employee integrity investigations conducted
during this reporting period.
Former IRS Data Transcriber Sentenced
for Stealing more than $350,000 in
Tax Refunds
A former IRS employee was sentenced in
August 2005 for conspiracy, wire fraud,
theft of Federal Government funds, money
laundering, and false representation of a
social security number. The former
April 1, 2005 to September 30, 2005 25