IRS 'Missing' 2300 Laptops

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http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/01/08/irs-missing-computers.htm

01/08/2002 - Updated 03:02 PM ET 
 
More than 2,300 IRS computers missing

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service, which holds taxpayers
strictly liable for accurate tax returns, is working to account for more
than 2,300 computers that have gone missing over the past three years.

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A recent Treasury Department audit was unable to determine whether the
laptops and other small computers were lost, stolen or simply not properly
documented. The IRS is reasonably sure that none contained sensitive
taxpayer data or could provide a way for hackers to break into the tax
agency's secure main computers.

IRS officials said Tuesday they are locating the computers, most of which
are older than three years and would normally be replaced anyway. Toni
Zimmerman, IRS chief of information technology services, said some were
probably stolen or lost but that most were misplaced through bookkeeping
errors.

"Over the course of events, they were coded wrong in the system,"
Zimmerman said.

Still, a senior senator suggested that Congress require concrete
improvements before approving more money for a long-term IRS computer
systems upgrade.

"An agency that requires taxpayers to show every receipt can't find 2,300
computers," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the
Senate Finance Committee. "The IRS wouldn't accept from a taxpayer the
nonanswer it has given."

In a letter dated Monday, Grassley asked Mitch Daniels, head of the White
House Office of Management and Budget, to consider placing a hold on the
IRS budget until the situation gets better. The IRS budget for fiscal 2002
is $9.5 billion, and Congress has approved over $391 million through 2004
for the computer modernization project.

The IRS got a positive opinion on its inventory controls last year from
the congressional General Accounting Office and is determined to get
better yet, Zimmerman said.

"We want to show that we are fiscally responsible and taxpayers should
feel confident with our processes," she said.

The missing computers were uncovered by a Treasury inspector general
during an audit late last year that also found six unaccounted-for IRS
firearms and hundreds of lost investigative items such as badges and
communications gear.

All told, auditors could not account for 2,332 laptops, microcomputers and
microservers covering the period between October 1998 and Sept. 30, 2001.
The IRS had 163,000 computers total as of September.

IRS officials said they are working on a new system allowing the agency to
discern between computers that are lost, stolen or damaged and improve its
ability to investigate incidents of missing property.

Of the six missing guns, one was lost in an ocean boating accident and
five were stolen from vehicles. Fifty communications devices, 40
identification badges and 15 pieces of electronic surveillance gear were
also reported missing, which auditors said "could compromise the public's
safety or ongoing investigations." 


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