Waste of the Day: IRS Computers Are “Inoperable”

Topline: A contractor that received $1.5 million from the Internal Revenue Service for computer maintenance left some computers unusable for over a year, according to an Aug. 8 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

40 of 100 IRS public computer terminals nationwide are inoperable

Key facts: The IRS has 100 computer terminals located around the country that help the public file their taxes, claim their refund or answer legal questions. These Facilitated Self-Assistance Kiosks were installed in 2011, but the inspector general found at least 40 that are inoperable. 

IRS employees told the inspector general that the company they hired to repair the computers was “slow” to respond, and it’s no wonder why. The company’s contract did not specify how quickly the computers should be repaired and did not include penalties for taking too long.

The IRS had a separate agreement with the contractor stating that repairs should only take 24 to 48 hours, but it was not legally binding.

From February 2023 to August 2024, the contractor left 137 service requests from the IRS unfinished. Twenty-four of them were open, meaning the contractor ignored them entirely and did not even begin the maintenance work. Twenty-eight of the tickets had been unresolved for at least a year, up to 466 days.

The inspector general first expressed concern over the delays last year, and the IRS decided to cancel the contract for 2025 and discontinue its kiosks. However, the IRS already paid “approximately” $500,000 to the contractor each year for the last three years, according to the audit.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.

The IRS previously committed a data breach

Background: The kiosks are not the first IRS program the inspector general has called out recently. Last year, the IRS left forms with taxpayers’ Social Security numbers and other confidential information sitting out in the open, and then mistakenly overpaid the garbage disposal company that threw them away. The IRS also miscalculated how much the pilot program of its Direct File system would cost, and spent $238 per tax filer instead of $27.

Summary: When even the federal agency responsible for collecting tax dollars does not have proper oversight of its own spending, it’s a sign that government contractors should be held to much stricter standards.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.