An internal watchdog claims the IRS spent $50 million on ‘inappropriate’ conference funds during a three-year period – news that serves to further embarrass the agency in wake of its targeting of conservative groups.
The Internal Revenue Service allegedly spent nearly $50 million
on about 200 employee conferences between 2010 and 2012, during
which it frequently provided its workers with presidential hotel
suites and allowed them to take dance classes and attend baseball
games, according to excerpts from an inspector general’s report
slated to be released Tuesday.
An August 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., cost the IRS $4
million. About 2,600 managers attended the event and stayed in
presidential hotel suites that usually cost $1,500 to $3,500 per
night. About 15 outside speakers were paid $135,000 each, one of
which was hired to discuss “leadership through art”,
according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
which released the excerpts.
The IRS also failed to negotiate lower room rates, which is a
standard practice for federal government agencies. Employees who
attended the conference also received a number of costly
benefits, including baseball tickets at taxpayers’ expense.
“They ended up with free drinks, they ended up with tickets to
games – basically kickbacks,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.),
chairman of the House oversight panel that released the excerpts,
told NBC News.
Over the weekend, a video surfaced online, showing about a dozen
IRS employees line dancing before the Anaheim conference. The
latest recording of the dancing workers cost the agency about
$1,600 and portrays a lack of seriousness in the hours leading up
to the conference. The “Cupid shuffle” line dance
recording was released after two IRS video parodies of the
“Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island” TV shows were
publicized in recent weeks. The IRS allegedly spent about $60,000
in taxpayer funds to produce all three videos, ABC News reports.
“It’s outrageous. Any kind of wasteful spending like this must
be put down, particularly at these times,” Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.) told NBC.
IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel admitted that the spending
outlined by the inspector general’s report was excessive, but
argued that the agency has become more responsible since then.
“This conference is an unfortunate vestige from a prior
era,” IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a
statement released Sunday, referring to the event in Anaheim.
“While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting,
many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and
should not have occurred.”
Werfel also claims that travel and training expenses have
decreased by “more than 80 percent.”
The Treasury Department released a statement alleging that the
administration “has already taken aggressive and dramatic
action to reduce conference spending.” IRS spokeswoman
Michelle Eldridge also said that spending on conferences with 50
or more participants was reduced from $37.6 million in 2010 to
$4.9 million in 2012, AP reports.
But news of the IRS’s spending history serves as further
embarrassment after the agency has been exposed numerous times
for its inappropriate conduct in recent weeks. The agency has
come under fire for targeting tea party organizations and other
conservative political groups more frequently for audits, which
generated immense criticism toward the IRS from Americans of
all political groups.
The inspector general’s report also includes quotes from
interviews with IRS employees, one of which said that “all my
direction” in screening conservative groups came from an
official in Washington, D.C. – a statement that further
contradicts IRS officials’ initial claims that low-level
employees ordered the targeted audits.
Rep. Issa plans to hold a hearing on the conference spending on
Thursday, two days after the full report is slated to be
released.