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Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Inspections and Evaluations Highlights Highlights of
Report Number: 2011-IE-R006 to the
Internal Revenue Service Human Capital Officer. WHY TIGTA DID THIS STUDY In 2003 and 2008,
TIGTA reviewed the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Workers’ Compensation Program and made recommendations to
improve internal controls. This review
was conducted to determine whether the IRS implemented corrective actions related
to those recommendations. Additionally, we assessed the IRS’s compliance
with the Safety, Health, and Return to Employment (SHARE) initiative,
and the Protecting Our Workers and
Ensuring Reemployment (POWER) initiative. WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED TIGTA recommended that the IRS consider
making workers’ compensation awareness part of the annual mandatory briefings
for managers. IRS management agreed that additional
training in the workers' compensation area could be beneficial for managers;
however, the curriculum for mandatory briefings is currently full. Therefore, management plans to consider the
use of alternative media for workers’ compensation training. TIGTA agreed with the alternative solution
proposed by the IRS. |
Issued
on June 6, 2011 A Follow-Up Evaluation of
the WHAT
TIGTA FOUND The
IRS had 2,610 active workers’ compensation claims as of
August 2010. New claims for
workers’ compensation as well as the total cost to the IRS of workers’
compensation claims have generally declined over the past five years. Total
workers’ compensation costs have decreased from
$46.7 million in Fiscal Year 2006 to $44.8 million in Fiscal Year 2010,
although there was a slight increase from 2009 to 2010 due to increased
medical costs. TIGTA found that the IRS’s programs for returning injured
employees to work have been largely successful and that the IRS has
implemented corrective actions to all prior recommendations. The IRS has been generally successful in
meeting the goals set for the SHARE and POWER initiatives, with the exception
of the goals for timely filing of claims. First-line managers primarily control the management of
workers’ compensation claims and actions, including the timely filing of the
initial claims. It is the IRS’s responsibility
to provide training and assistance to its managers when performing duties
related to workers’ compensation.
Video training materials have been developed to address the managers’
responsibilities for a workers’ compensation claim. However, these videos are not universally
distributed. In addition, while the
IRS plans to put the video training material on an intranet website, it has
not established a date of completion. READ
THE FULL REPORT To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to: http://www.treas.gov/tigta/iereports/2011reports/2011ier006fr.html Email Address: TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov Phone
Number: 202-622-6500 Web Site: http://www.tigta.gov |