As of February 2008, approximately 34,000 telephone calling cards had been issued to IRS employees. However, the IRS never established effective or regular controls to identify and deal with improper use of these cards. According to the report, the same control weaknesses had already been identified in FY 2004. In fact, the report showed that the Telecommunications Asset Tool (TAT) system, which the IRS created in June 2003 to “improve controls over telecommunications costs,” had not been effectively implemented and that the system was not capturing critical information. 

 

For example, in an almost three-year period, from October 2005 through August 2008, only once did the IRS review telephone calling card charges for potential waste, fraud, or abuse, and this was limited to an analysis of calls during just one month: March 2008. Even this meager analysis did not study possible abuses of teleconference-related call charges, which totaled $7.4 million between October 2005 and April 2008.

 

The Inspector General report showed that in just one year, from June 2007 through June 2008, one single card reported charges of approximately $59,000 for improper telephone calls made between the United States and various foreign countries

-Aaron Wallechinsky

 

Controls Over Employee Telephone Calling Cards Are Insufficient to Identify Waste, Fraud, and Abuse (by Michael Phillips, Treasury Inspector GeneraL for Tax Administration)