IRS Employees Spent 8.4 Million of Tax Payer Dollars on Calling Card Calls

In a recent report by the Treasury Department, it was disclosed that the IRS had issued just over 34,000 calling cards to it's employees for the purpose of making business related long distance calls (primarily for dialing into conference calls). The most disturbing part of the report is that in the period from October 2005 to April 2008 the total spend on these cards was about 8.4 million dollars. In one case it was found that 1 calling card in particular had made over $59,000 worth of calls in a one year time frame.

The abuses of these business issued calling cards is just another example of the governments total lack of controls in the way they manage their funds. The report points out that there is a glaring need for the IRS to increase their controls over the use of these government issued cards... ya think???

The sad part is the best solution that the IRS can come up with is to review these numbers quarterly for better identification of abuse and fraud rather than it's current trend of once every three years. How about reviewing who actually needs one of these cards in the first place and limiting the number of people with government issued cards into the hundreds rather than in the tens of thousands! In the modern day with low cost mobile plans, all inclusive conference services and free (or close to free) calling methods like Skype, why in the world would the IRS need to have so many calling cards circulating around?

Knowing how slow the government tend to move, it would be of no surprise if we are still seeing the same high spending a year or two from now as well!.

The service provider for these cards is AT&T

Complete details of the IRS calling card program can be found on the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=161120,00.html