Processes Do Not Adequately Reduce the Risk That Outside Employment Activities Will Conflict With Employees' Official Duties

The Director, Workforce Relations Division, should review the 2,196 employees who hold IRS positions that have responsibility for tax matters and the 167 employees who are potentially engaged in prohibited activity, who earned income in TY 2016 but did not have an approved outside employment request, and ensure that appropriate action is taken to address any prohibited activities or conflicts of interest.

The Director, Workforce Relations Division, should update the outside employment guidelines to clarify what outside employment activities require approval.

The Director, Workforce Relations Division, should work with the IRS's Office of Chief Counsel to evaluate whether a legislative proposal is needed to amend Internal Revenue Code § 6103 to enable the IRS to use tax data to perform analyses and identify employees engaged in outside employment activities that involve potentially prohibited activities.

The Director, Workforce Relations Division, should establish processes to conduct periodic quality reviews to ensure that the OES is accurate.

The Director, Workforce Relations Division, should remove the paper Form 7995 as an option to request outside employment and require IRS employees to submit all outside employment requests through the OES.