Collection Contracting Out To Begin The HOUSTON CHRONICLE of April 3, 2005 ran a story on a particularly troublesome piece of pork which was stuffed into some legislative mischief called the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. Signed by Bush in October,2004 Sec. 881 of the law allows the IRS to contract out collection work. Given the fact that this administration believes desperately in contracting out federal jobs there was never any doubt that Bush's hand-picked Commissioner would take advantage of that authority. The Chronicle worried about disclosure and violations of the Fair Debt Collection act as well as noting that Everson himself guessed, and we all know about Bush administration 'best-case' estimates, that in ten years the program would net a mere billion dollars to the Treasury. Even the Texans said there "would be more reward in just properly staffing the agency we already have rather than running the risk of private collection agencies jeopardizing the already tenuous relationship taxpayers have with the IRS." In all honesty, while we agree with the Chronicle they have their point of view and we have ours. Their concerns, while valid, are not ours. You may read their article at this link: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/mym/3114752 The Union can't worry about the public; they have plenty of advocates as opposed to federal workers who have few. So it is other provisions of this bill which draw our attention. We have noted management's failure to replace revenue officers who retire or transfer. In spite of hideous attrition there are no plans to hire ROs for the next two fiscal years in our area. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is happening for a reason. Territory Manager, Frank Chimera, after returning from a management conference in Washington last year gave a pretty good indication that the Brass is not happy with the performance of the Collection function. Having made the job all but impossible for anyone to do, the IRS now wants to blame the troops for having lost the war. Frank suggested that some sort of service center centralization is in the works with a vestigial field function that would run around serving papers and doing errands. Frank did not make that up by himself and if the Brass are telling it to lowly Territory Managers it is safe to assume that somewhere in the bowels of Headquarters they are working on a plan. Given the way they work, most of you will be retired by the time they finish it but still, for the handful of recent recruits or those who are more than 2 years from KMA, it is a worry So what is it in this law that is so worrisome? For many years a lot of ROs have said that if Congress wants to reinvigorate the Collection Function it will have to undo Section 1203(b)of RRA '98. This law does it . . . sort of. After piously insisting that any contractor must follow all the rules that IRS employees must follow the law enacts a specific section (Sec. 6306 (d)) which states that the government "shall not be liable for any act or omission" of a contractor. Hold that thought. Next, Section 7433A (b) provides that civil actions filed for violation of taxpayer rights must be brought against the contractor and that the contractor is liable for damages and costs as a result of a lawsuit and not the government. Hold that thought, too. Finally, paragraphs (d) and (e) amend 1203(b) so that contractors who are guilty of violations of taxpayer rights if, as a result of a lawsuit, "there is a final determination by the Secretary of the Treasury that such individual" did commit such a violation. We all know how long it takes for a civil suit to progress through the courts. For all that time, the contractor keeps working and raking in a 25% commission and then his/her fate is determined by a political hack who is committed to the concept of contracting out in the first place! So here is what the government gets from this law. ROs are still handcuffed by 1203(b) and ensuing regulations that the IRS came up with on its own. Debt Collection agencies, who historically violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act with impunity get a golden cash cow to milk. While they are theoretically under the same rules as an RO the fact is that they are safe from harm unless someone files a lawsuit against them and wins. Even then, it is up to the Secretary of the Treasury. If a suit is filed, the government has made itself safe from the damages awarded by the provisions of this law. It does not take much of an imagination to see that a taxpayer who is in trouble with the government is one of the least likely to be able to afford the costs of litigation against an IRS contractor. An employee who runs afoul of these laws is open to immediate termination and the government is liable for damages as a result of the employees' actions. A contractor gets the government off the hook. This is why we are concerned about the future of the Collection function. |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Vol. 22, No. 2 IRS ! The Incredible Shrinking Agency May 15, 2005 |
PLOT THICKENS IN FITNESS CENTER CASE |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Published by NTEU Chapter 53 George Greenberg President Bob Schillaci Editor 107 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. 1180 Veterans Highway Garden City, NY 11530 Hauppauge, NY 11788 516 683-5679 631-851-4965 |
EMPLOYEE WISECRACKS |
Bushwhacked...Junior |
EDITORIALS |
In the last issue we told you about how employee contributions to the Garden City Fitness Center Fund had ended up in the control of Territory Manager, George Field, and that the IRS refused to provide an accounting for those funds. (Must be one of those "Lite Audits" they love to talk about now!) Pursuing the matter Chapter 53 had filed a bargaining proposal to require the IRS to provide an audit of the funds and they reacted like: "Audits? We don't need no stinking audits!" The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service had been called in and that was pretty much how things stood at the time the last issue went to press. There have been a few interesting developments in the interim. You must understand that in the new IRS, the Labor Relations department has virtually seized control of the process, not that local management fought very hard to retain control. This is somewhat akin to having the fleas tell the dog what to do. The Chief Flea for the Fitness Center issue has been Christine Forrest who actually tried to tell us that managers have an inherent right to unilaterally seize employee funds whenever the mood struck them. We asked to see such a regulation in writing. So far, no reply. That did not stop former Senior Commissioner's Rep, Donna McNierney from jumping on the Management- -Can-Do- Whatever- It-Wants-Whenever-It-Wants-To" bandwagon; Donna always liked that point of view but the mediator was simply astounded and it now appears as if IRS counsel told them they were out of their minds because they quickly dropped all references to that idea.. Having failed to get that piece of nonsense past anyone with a brain, Forrest's next move was to decide that Chapter #271 (Brooklyn) and #252 (Appeals) would have to be included in the negotiations. People from the Appeals Office at least used the Garden City Fitness Center but they were never involved in these negotiations. Chapter #271, distracted by its own internal problems, was never a part of this negotiation, never submitted any proposals and never asked to attend the one session that was held. However, in early February the former president and several members of the Executive Board staged a coup d'etat which resulted in one Jorge Diaz being named president. We know Diaz from his (recent) acting manager days in W & I in Garden City and had a number of problems with him and what we could only be construe as his pro-management attitude. This problem has beset #271 before and we are not about to be told by Christine Forrest or anyone else that a management wannabe is going to be part and parcel of OUR bargaining team. If management wants Diaz to participate so badly let them add him to THEIR team, not ours. Chapter #271 had opportunities to join in if they had wanted to. They certainly have nothing to add about events which transpired in Garden City. Here is what we know at this point. We estimate that somewhere between $17,000 and $30,000 is unaccounted for. That's why we want an audit done to find out what is missing. After we filed an Unfair Labor Practice, Christine Forrest turned over documents to Chapter 53 which show that checks, from the IREB Federal Credit Union in Brooklyn were used to make withdrawals from the Fitness Center account, however, we do not have the credit union withdrawal slips showing that they were signed by authorized signators. One check for $911 was used as payment to Brothers Moving and Storage in Phoenix, AZ which, in their words, was to pick up gym equipment from the Tucson IRS office and ship it to Brooklyn's 5th floor.....in care of George Field. We have it on good authority that the last bargaining unit members of the committee resigned rather than agree to Mr. Field's demand that they sign blank withdrawal forms. The longer the IRS allows this to fester the more we are starting to think that the whole mess belongs with New York State Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer, rather than the Federal Labor Relations Authority. We should not have to negotiate ethics with these people. They should jump at the chance. |
A reader in another chapter e-mailed this observation: Jesus once changed water into wine...Booz-Allen couldn't change water into urine. One member has figured out what the IRS is all about: In this organization loyalty is expected but not reciprocated. A recent escapee from Brookhaven Service Center said: BSC is the largest federal women's prison on Long Island. (Apologies to Chapter #99....too good to pass up!) Steward, Cassie Manzella, to Excise Tax Manager, Andy Koehm: I am the accommodating steward. That's why you're talking to me instead of George Greenberg. |
GUEST EDITORIAL |
Former NTEU President, Robert Tobias, is still serving on the so-called IRS Oversight Board. In his report of 2-3-05, he makes the following observation on the IRS budget process. "By the time you receive this, the President will have released his proposed 2006 budget. Although I expect the IRS will fare well in comparison to other agencies, I think I can fairly well predict it will not be at the level of the Board recommended budget. I think that I can also predict it will not be at a level that will enable the IRS to do what it knows how to do, at a level that will Maximize the level of voluntary compliance. Finally, I think I can predict that we will all be frustrated." |
Superior Effort |
The officers of Chapter 53 publically acknowledge the efforts of NTEU Field Representative, John Ziv, of the Hoboken Field Office. John who is not assigned to this chapter, was given a number of Chapter 53 cases to work when a backlog developed. Like Sherman Marching Through Georgia, John worked out settlement after settlement with IRS Counsel saving everyone a ton of money in the process and avoiding the seemingly interminable delays inherent in the arbitration process. As the IRS has morphed into an organization in which management is incapable or unwilling to make a decision on a grievance the role of the Field Rep has grown. Our beloved managers, who get paid a lot of money to do nothing but make decisions are stealing their paychecks because they want a lawyer from General Legal Services to resolve every grievance for them. It's easiest for these people to say "no" to everything and then con themselves that they did the right thing when GLS settles the case out from under them. Usually we'd tease John that he only wins because his opponents are inept but in this case we don't care. This was an impressive blitz on John's part to clear up the backlog. |
Collection Contracting Out To Begin The HOUSTON CHRONICLE of April 3, 2005 ran a story on a particularly troublesome piece of pork which was stuffed into some legislative mischief called the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. Signed by Bush in October,2004 Sec. 881 of the law allows the IRS to contract out collection work. Given the fact that this administration believes desperately in contracting out federal jobs there was never any doubt that Bush's hand-picked Commissioner would take advantage of that authority. The Chronicle worried about disclosure and violations of the Fair Debt Collection act as well as noting that Everson himself guessed, and we all know about Bush administration 'best-case' estimates, that in ten years the program would net a mere billion dollars to the Treasury. Even the Texans said there "would be more reward in just properly staffing the agency we already have rather than running the risk of private collection agencies jeopardizing the already tenuous relationship taxpayers have with the IRS." In all honesty, while we agree with the Chronicle they have their point of view and we have ours. Their concerns, while valid, are not ours. You may read their article at this link: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/mym/3114752 The Union can't worry about the public; they have plenty of advocates as opposed to federal workers who have few. So it is other provisions of this bill which draw our attention. We have noted management's failure to replace revenue officers who retire or transfer. In spite of hideous attrition there are no plans to hire ROs for the next two fiscal years in our area. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is happening for a reason. Territory Manager, Frank Chimera, after returning from a management conference in Washington last year gave a pretty good indication that the Brass is not happy with the performance of the Collection function. Having made the job all but impossible for anyone to do, the IRS now wants to blame the troops for having lost the war. Frank suggested that some sort of service center centralization is in the works with a vestigial field function that would run around serving papers and doing errands. Frank did not make that up by himself and if the Brass are telling it to lowly Territory Managers it is safe to assume that somewhere in the bowels of Headquarters they are working on a plan. Given the way they work, most of you will be retired by the time they finish it but still, for the handful of recent recruits or those who are more than 2 years from KMA, it is a worry So what is it in this law that is so worrisome? For many years a lot of ROs have said that if Congress wants to reinvigorate the Collection Function it will have to undo Section 1203(b)of RRA '98. This law does it . . . sort of. After piously insisting that any contractor must follow all the rules that IRS employees must follow the law enacts a specific section (Sec. 6306 (d)) which states that the government "shall not be liable for any act or omission" of a contractor. Hold that thought. Next, Section 7433A (b) provides that civil actions filed for violation of taxpayer rights must be brought against the contractor and that the contractor is liable for damages and costs as a result of a lawsuit and not the government. Hold that thought, too. Finally, paragraphs (d) and (e) amend 1203(b) so that contractors who are guilty of violations of taxpayer rights if, as a result of a lawsuit, "there is a final determination by the Secretary of the Treasury that such individual" did commit such a violation. We all know how long it takes for a civil suit to progress through the courts. For all that time, the contractor keeps working and raking in a 25% commission and then his/her fate is determined by a political hack who is committed to the concept of contracting out in the first place! So here is what the government gets from this law. ROs are still handcuffed by 1203(b) and ensuing regulations that the IRS came up with on its own. Debt Collection agencies, who historically violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act with impunity get a golden cash cow to milk. While they are theoretically under the same rules as an RO the fact is that they are safe from harm unless someone files a lawsuit against them and wins. Even then, it is up to the Secretary of the Treasury. If a suit is filed, the government has made itself safe from the damages awarded by the provisions of this law. It does not take much of an imagination to see that a taxpayer who is in trouble with the government is one of the least likely to be able to afford the costs of litigation against an IRS contractor. An employee who runs afoul of these laws is open to immediate termination and the government is liable for damages as a result of the employees' actions. A contractor gets the government off the hook. This is why we are concerned about the future of the Collection function. |
YE REAP AS YE SOW ...or, in the rough words of former IRS Commissioner, Charles Rossotti, as penned in "Many Unhappy Returns, his apologia for his disastrous regime, 'in a bureaucracy you get what you measure.' We mention this because Rossotti was instrumental in the recently expired union contract which imposed a series of what were intended to be restrictions on the use of bank time by the union. "Bank Time" as opposed to "Official Time" covers grievances and other representational actions which occur without management present. Obviously, then, Official Time occurs generally when management is present. It struck us that Rossotti and his cronies wanted to make it harder for the union to file grievances by making the use of bank time more difficult. Another method might have been to stop doing so many things that cause grievances but you cannot expect a man like Rossotti to think of that, can you? When the new rules were written Chapter 53 had accumulated a total of over 9,000 hours in bank time. This was to be wiped out and replaced by a new calculation based initially on the size of the bargaining unit but more truthfully on the amount of bank time used in a specific time period. In the intervening months before the new contract went into effect Chapter 53 burned through several thousand hours of bank time thus inflating our total for the upcoming accounting period. It was surprisingly easy to do. We just filed a pile of grievances which thereby undercut Rossotti's plan to reduce grievances. At one time, Chapter 53 had over 100 open grievances on the IRS ALERTS system which Labor Relations allegedly uses to keep track of such things. What Rossotti and his cronies did not understand was that we had accumulated that pile of 9,000 hours because we had an incentive to SAVE it - not use it. Rossotti, whose goal was to reduce the amount of time spent on union activities thus inspired us to increase the time. He made it the equivalent of a manager with a budget who must spend his entire budget otherwise he gets less money the following year! We can learn how to play bureaucratic games too, Mr. Rossotti. People with such a limited understanding of human nature (and IRS management is full of such types) are forever doomed to be surprised when their plots and machinations do not work. We have a clue for you fellows. They never work because you never learn. |
CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE. |
Last year the IRS unveiled its TIGTA Audit program on the theory that if the IRS could not harm real taxpayers maybe it could pad its stats by going after employees. We modestly say that we have been quite successful in derailing this misguided utilization of resources and out of the effort we have come up with a true subject matter expert on the issue: Steward Bob Wolfson. He actually got a small refund for an employee who was being grilled by TIGTA which must have fried their asses, to say the least. Aside from the TIGTA audits, Bob handled a number of new employee audits and employees that he represented have actually taken the time to write or call their appreciation to the chapter office for Bob's services on their behalf. The TIGTA audit program could have had dire consequences. We have learned from Chapter #99 at BSC that they are facing a series of termination cases as a result of these audits. They do not have the same level of technical tax expertise that we have nor should they; it is not what they do over there and management takes advantage of that fact. Well we are more than ready and willing to provide that assistance on the theory that a UNION is supposed to help out OTHER UNIONS against MANAGEMENT. Especially a management like our's. |
GROSS MISMANAGEMENT |
THE WASHINGTON POST, on 4-22-05, ran a story on the Human Resources Investment Fund, (HRIF) which is supposed to provide tuition assistance for IRS employees to better themselves. Instead, it appears as if HRIF mainly serves as a patronage platform for managers to reward their pals with cushy, do-nothing, jobs. The Internal Audit function of TIGTA as opposed to the Internal Security function found that 'administrative costs' ate up 60% of the money which was supposed to help employees and that almost 1,700 employees were denied tuition assistance for 'lack of funds' while up to 80 people drew salaries against that budget. TIGTA wants the program abolished but that doesn't answer the original intent of encouraging employees to develop their skills. We suggest firing a few of these management leeches who suck the money out of these programs for their own ends. Maybe that will send a message to the others. Senator Max Baucus, (D-Montana) observed: "In a program intended for employee development, administrative costs exceeded tuition paid by almost two to one...As Congress considers the IRS budget for the upcoming year, we must be confident that the IRS is using its money responsibly." Well then, senator....stop turning so much of it over to IRS management, or at least hold them accountable. |
Your Chapter Election Ballot Will Arrive Soon. Make Sure You Vote. |
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Walk-In Units Under Budget Attack Chapter 53 members had been relatively isolated from IRS job slashing until the announcement that many Walk-In Centers would be closed to save money. After making people walk on eggshells for a week the IRS was to hold a conference to announce which TACs would be closed but with their usual attention to detail cancelled the conference at the last moment. Par for the course but we can't wait for them to get their act together before we go to press. The notion that the IRS will close the Tax Assistance Centers is a direct threat to a group of people who have been laboring in one of the most thankless jobs going. The problem with W&I is not the workers....it's the managers and you have to know they will protect their fellow clones. National NTEU has had a pretty good record of obtaining buyouts and other protections for workers who were displaced by management's delusions of grandeur. This idea requires a completely different approach. Closing the TACs is not only bad for our members, many of whom are too young to benefit from a buyout, but it is bad for the public. We know that we tend to regard any action of this administration as somehow motivated by a desire to help out business interests which contribute to Republican campaigns but if the IRS is not providing free customer service any taxpayer who needs assistance will be forced to use their less than stellar call-in sites or go online or use a service such as H&R Block....which does not work for free. Not everyone has a computer at home, Mr. Everson. Commissioner Everson claims that he needs to cut the TACs in order to cover a budget shortfall....and that is always the way with these people. They cut the jobs of the people who do the work and meantime keep wasting hundreds of millions on their hair-brained schemes which seem to serve no other purpose than to provide themselves with jobs. At the same time that Everson is making life more profitable for accountants he is asking for another $199 million to continue computer upgrades, where, in the words of Senator Chris Bond (R-Mo) "almost every system is behind schedule, over cost or delivering less functionality than originally planned." Bond hopes that it does not turn into another $4 billion disaster like TSM. Well, Senator, why not get together with Senator Baucus from Page 2 and impose some 'oversight.' |
