IG: IRS stimulus dollars missing oversight

During an audit last year TIGTA first discovered that contracting officers’ technical representatives (COTR) were not always performing
all of their oversight duties. Instead, the COTRs restricted themselves to administrative tasks and delegated the job of verifying contractors’ work to program office employees who
lacked the proper authority and training to determine whether
the goods or services provided were acceptable. 

Following last year’s audit the IRS planned several corrective actions, including
issuing a memo on the importance of COTRs’ role in contract oversight and updating COTR
policies. However, several of those actions are not scheduled for implementation until December. TIGTA made no further recommendations in its latest report, though IRS
management reviewed and agreed with the findings.