Using IRS Auditors to Train Lost $6.5 Billion, GAO Says

The Internal Revenue Service may have lost $6.5 billion in taxes by taking senior auditors off cases to train new workers, congressional analysts say.

A report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, estimated that in cases it had checked the government lost more than $1 million in taxes for each new worker who completed a 26-month training course under the tutelage of senior auditors.

“It is clear that the use of experienced revenue agents to train new agents carries a significant cost in terms of unrealized audit revenues,” the GAO said in its report. “It is essential that IRS explore alternatives to its present training program.”

The IRS had reached much the same conclusion in its own survey of training procedures, although the agency found a lower revenue loss than did the GAO. However, the IRS is concerned enough about the loss that is planning to hire private contractors to conduct some training in the budget year that will begin Oct. 1.