WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) adequately prepared for and took

the necessary actions to evacuate and protect IRS employees, secure taxpayer data and

Federal Government property, and timely resume business operations following an

incident in February 2010 in which a single-engine airplane was intentionally flown into

the Echelon I building housing IRS employees in Austin, Texas.

Those are the findings of a report released publicly today by the Treasury Inspector

General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). TIGTA conducted its audit at the request of

the IRS to determine whether the IRS was adequately prepared for and took the necessary

actions to protect IRS employees, taxpayer data, and Federal Government property and to

resume normal business operations following the airplane crash, which killed one IRS

employee.

Effective continuity planning and emergency preparedness can facilitate the IRS's ability

to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. These efforts include

providing personnel services to support employee needs and restoring critical functions.

The IRS timely provided extensive personnel services to assess and support affected

employee needs, identified temporary office space for the affected employees, awarded

several procurements to support the recovery effort in an expedited time period, and

provided the furnishings and equipment needed to resume work within 18 calendar days

of the incident.

However, TIGTA auditors determined that emergency planning for the Echelon I

building was not complete, as none of the business resumption plans for the eight

business units located at the Echelon I building included all of the required elements. In

addition, the salvage contract used to recover documents, including taxpayer data at the

incident site, did not include all of the required security provisions and did not contain an

official designation appointing a Contracting Officer's Technical Representative.

"These issues did not have a material impact on the IRS's response to the Austin

incident," said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

"Taken as a whole, the IRS's preparation and response ensured that the effect of the

Austin incident on IRS employees and tax administration was minimized."

TIGTA recommended that the IRS: 1) ensure that lessons learned relative to the business

resumption plans are applied to the development of the new continuity plans and

2) include on the lessons-learned document and the Incident Management Plan template

the provisions for emergency procurements.

In their response to the report, IRS officials agreed with TIGTA's recommendations and

described specific progress they have made towards implementing them.