Watchdog: IRS, union agreement violates records law

The IRS and Commissioner John Koskinen have been under intense fire from legislator in recent months, culminating with calls to censure and impeach the commissioner and a lawsuit claiming the agency illegally deleted texts and failed to save internal messages.

Government accountability watchdog Cause of Action (CoA) Institute filed a legal complaint May 23 alleging the IRS violated the Federal Records Act and the group’s right to information by deleting text messages and not archiving instant messages between employees using the Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS).

According to the complaint, IRS officials told CoA the agency abided by a 14-day retention policy, then deleted text messages after two weeks. CoA researchers were told the policy was an IT necessity because storing too many old messages would bog down the system.

The legal complaint filed by CoA notes IRS officials did not obtain a waiver from NARA to allow the destruction of these messages, which would put the agency in violation of the Federal Records Act.

While digging into the policy, CoA also discovered an agreement between the IRS and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that prohibits the agency from saving instant messages sent over OCS.