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Inspector General Says IRS Wasted $3.5 Million on ID-Card Program
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¿ $1.9 million to buy 350,000 public key infrastructure certificates in 2005. PKI is an encryption system that verifies the validity of each party in an electronic transaction, and the certificates will be needed in the future so employees can use their ID cards to access computer systems. However, the IRS does not expect to use the cards at this time, and the Treasury said the certificates had a three-year lifespan.
¿ $838,000 in September for 18 PKI servers that were never used for the program. The report said some of the servers have been used on a very limited basis for other IRS projects, but it was clear "that the servers were purchased prematurely and the funds could have been used more effectively."
¿ $431,000 to establish an ID badge laboratory. That lab has been closed and deemed unnecessary now that Treasury is planning to share that work with the General Services Administration.
The inspector general's office also criticized the IRS for not maintaining documents to back up costs, saying it was able to account for only about 70 percent of the obligated spending.
Controls were too weak to hold contractors accountable for work performed, and the IRS paid contractors without verifying that the work was carried out, the report said.
