WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revenue officer hiring initiative

added 1,515 new revenue officers to the tax agency's workforce of approximately

100,000 employees throughout the country over a nine-month period between June 2009

and February 2010.

Even so, the IRS faces challenges keeping pace with attrition and an increasing workload.

Its planned hiring in Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012 will barely cover losses, according to a

new report publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax

Administration (TIGTA).

As the role of IRS revenue officers is to collect taxes due, they have a direct impact on

the IRS's ability to fulfill its mission. TIGTA's report found that despite the hires, the

net increase of revenue officers working delinquent accounts was only 580 revenue

officers due to attrition. Meanwhile, the percentage of delinquent accounts closed by

revenue officers has steadily decreased because of increasing inventory.

"This report reveals that the same challenge faced by all Federal agencies is just as

problematical for the IRS," said J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for

Tax Administration. "A key element of effective workforce planning is determining the

size of the workforce needed to meet organizational goals and identifying gaps between

current and future workforce needs," he said.

TIGTA made two recommendations to assist the IRS in its ability to optimize staffing

levels and track performance results. IRS management agreed with the first

recommendation but stated that it already is working on a plan to track performance

results. Since IRS officials did not share the plan with TIGTA during the review, the

audit did not assess whether those efforts address the recommendation.