WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator's book alleges that IRS employees who blew the whistle in Congress on abusive practices are suffering retaliation. The agency's chief says that won't be tolerated if true.
Charles Rossotti, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, met last week with Sen. William Roth to carefully go over the claims made by some agents in the senator's new book, "The Power to Destroy."In a brief interview Monday, Rossotti said he will enforce "specific instructions" ensuring that IRS employees "who have testified or done anything else along those lines" will not suffer reprisals.
"We've done everything that's humanly possible to make sure those employees are treated fairly, and we will continue to do that," Rossotti said.
The book is a follow-up to high-profile hearings on the IRS last year in the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Roth. The complaints aired then led to last year's sweeping IRS reform law giving Americans more rights and improving oversight of the agency.
But in his book, the Delaware Republican says there is continuing evidence of an ingrained culture of taxpayer abuse despite the reform law.
"Changing the culture of the IRS will require more than legislation," wrote Roth. "It will take a decade of training and oversight, vigilance by Congress and zero tolerance for abuse and mismanagement."
Roth and co-author William Nixon said that despite IRS pledges that it wouldn't happen, several agency witnesses who testified about problems appear to be suffering reprisals on the job.
"I have been deeply disturbed to hear from several that they are being hounded by their superiors," Roth wrote.
One unidentified employee in the IRS examinations branch is quoted in the book as telling Roth she has gotten failing grades on evaluations since the hearings, compared with "good" to "superior" for 15 years before that.