IRS rehired hundreds of employees with histories of poor performance

The Internal Revenue Service has been much in the news lately over the agency's complaints that it lacks adequate funding and staff to manage the 2015 tax season effectively. But a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) suggests that the staffers the IRS does have may be more worrisome than the ones it doesn't.

That's because the IRS rehired some 323 former employees between January 2010 and July 2013 who had previously left the agency for being terrible at their jobs. While some were merely "failing critical job elements at the time they had separated from their prior employment with the IRS," others had committed more serious offenses, like looking at people's tax records that they were not authorized to view.

The IRS told TIGTA it does not give much consideration to past performance when considering a rehire.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up