IRS Has Shown It Can’t Handle Money

When Bob Dole said he would “end the IRS as we know it,” maybe he had advance knowledge of its latest fiasco (“IRS Pulls Plug on Its Electronic Tax-Filing System,” Sept. 11). If the facts are right, this agency, given $20 billion by Congress to update its technology, is in the process of squandering this huge allocation.

Cyberfile, an effort to let people file their returns on the World Wide Web, is a disaster. Why the IRS chose this priority when it has trouble with simple tasks like filing and retrieving paper returns is beyond me. Incredibly, the IRS turned the project over to the Commerce Department and maintained no oversight while Commerce gave the work to an unqualified firm without competitive bidding, apparently to meet a quota for set-asides for disadvantaged businesses.

If anyone thinks the current administration has “reinvented” government to make it more efficient, or that massive amounts of waste cannot be squeezed out of the federal bureaucracy, they only need study the details of this story.

WILLIAM BRADSHAW

San Diego