The IRS agreed with 16 of 19 recommendations made through the audit.

The report cited the fact that that IRS directs taxpayers to send correspondence about Accounts Management to its Tax Processing Centers. Having these mailed to the IRS Campus Support Sites could reduce the time it takes for unprocessed documents to reach Accounts Management.

In addition, the Accounts Management Customer Service Representatives are supposed to address these cases are also responsible for answering toll-free telephone calls made to the agents. There are 8,522 CSRs who split their time this way and another 4,573 whose sole job is answering telephones.

More the audit said the Image Control Team that scans taxpayer documents is spread throughout  10 Accounts Management sites but they lack central management. Three sites are operated by Submission Processing, seven by Accounts Management.

“We found that a lack of single ownership and oversight by one function resulted in inconsistencies in the allocation of ICT staff when compared to the inventory received in each Tax Processing Center and Campus Support Site,” the report said.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind