TREASURY
INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION
Continued
Improvements Are Needed for the Development and Operations of the New
Issued on April 27, 2007
Highlights
Highlights of
Report Number: 2007-20-073 to the
Internal Revenue Service Chief Information Officer.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
The Enterprise Services
organization (the Organization) has a Fiscal Year 2007 estimated budget of
$85.9 million and had 784 employees as of May 2006. The Organization needs to further define its
missions and goals, validate staffing assignments, and create performance
measures. Until this work is complete,
neither TIGTA nor the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be able to
objectively determine whether the Organization is operating efficiently or
effectively and whether taxpayer funds are being spent wisely.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
This audit was initiated because the IRS began consolidating
several existing functions and offices to form the new Organization under a
newly appointed Associate Chief Information Officer, in an effort to improve
services. Developing an organization to
incorporate operations and services at an enterprisewide level is a complex
effort. TIGTA
conducted the review to determine whether internal controls were in place to
ensure the Organization was achieving its
mission efficiently and effectively.
WHAT
TIGTA FOUND
The IRS created the Organization structure based on
recommendations from the MITRE Corporation, IBM, and key IRS executives;
developed preliminary staffing estimates; and used an IRS program of continual
process improvement to ensure significant activities were accomplished as the Organization was founded. The IRS stated it had initially documented
high-level commitments for Organization
senior managers; however, IRS executives believed directors and managers would
need to gain operational experience within the new Organization before
developing individual goals and missions within their respective functions and
offices. In May 2006, the Organization documented the missions and
goals of its subordinate offices. As TIGTA
was completing the audit, the validation of these missions and goals was
ongoing at many levels of the Organization,
and work was underway to define short-term and long-term (transformational)
plans, validate staffing assignments, and measure performance. Because this work is in process, TIGTA was
unable to objectively determine the level of efficiency or effectiveness of the
individual offices or the overall Organization.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
The
Associate Chief Information Officer, Enterprise Services, should (1) complete
the work necessary to validate and document missions and goals; (2) develop and
document short-term and long-term transformational plans; (3) track individual
work assignments when applicable, revise the Single Entry Time Reporting system
codes, and reevaluate staffing needs based on current and future workloads; and
(4) complete the current performance measures pilot, identify performance
measures for offices not included in the current pilot, and identify key
performance measures for the entire Organization.
In their response to the
report, IRS officials agreed with our recommendations and stated the IRS will
document the mission and goals for the Organization, complete the current
performance measures pilot, identify performance measures for the Organization,
construct a high-level approach to develop short-term and long-term
transformational plans, and create an implementation plan to establish new
Single Entry Time Reporting codes and processes to validate staffing needs.
READ THE
FULL REPORT
To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to:
http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2007reports/200720073fr.html.
Email
Address: Bonnie.Heald@tigta.treas.gov
Phone Number: 202-927-7037
Web Site:
http://www.tigta.gov