Kathianne
06-07-2013, 03:52 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/lawmakers-to-grill-irs-officials-over-lavish-spending-on-employee-conferences/2013/06/06/16d1816a-ce83-11e2-8573-3baeea6a2647_story.html
IRS official apologizes for lavish $4M conference but says agency followed government rules By Associated Press, <!-- For AP News Registry --> Associated Press <abbr class="updated" title="2013-06-06T23:12:10-0400">Jun 06, 2013 11:12 PM EDT</abbr>
AP
<!-- /For AP News Registry --> Published: June 6
WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service official whose division staged a lavish $4.1 million training conference and who starred as Mr. Spock in a “Star Trek” parody shown at the 2010 gathering conceded to Congress on Thursday that taxpayer dollars were wasted in the episode.
“We’re now in a very different environment” with new IRS spending curbs, Faris Fink, a top deputy in the agency’s small business division at the time, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Fink, who now heads that 24,000-employee division, said he believes many of the expenditures “should have been more closely scrutinized or not incurred at all and were not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”
...
Elizabeth Hofacre, an agent in the Cincinnati office, said she was in charge of processing applications from tea party groups, once they were selected by other agents, from April to October 2010, according to the transcript. She said an IRS lawyer in Washington, Carter Hull, micromanaged her work and ultimately delayed the processing of applications by tea party groups.
She said Hull’s interest in the cases was highly unusual. “It was demeaning,” she said. “One of the criteria is to work independently and do research and make decisions based on your experience and education, whereas on this case, I had no autonomy at all through the process.”
Neither Hofacre nor Hull responded to requests for comment.
...
IRS official apologizes for lavish $4M conference but says agency followed government rules By Associated Press, <!-- For AP News Registry --> Associated Press <abbr class="updated" title="2013-06-06T23:12:10-0400">Jun 06, 2013 11:12 PM EDT</abbr>
AP
<!-- /For AP News Registry --> Published: June 6
WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service official whose division staged a lavish $4.1 million training conference and who starred as Mr. Spock in a “Star Trek” parody shown at the 2010 gathering conceded to Congress on Thursday that taxpayer dollars were wasted in the episode.
“We’re now in a very different environment” with new IRS spending curbs, Faris Fink, a top deputy in the agency’s small business division at the time, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Fink, who now heads that 24,000-employee division, said he believes many of the expenditures “should have been more closely scrutinized or not incurred at all and were not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”
...
Elizabeth Hofacre, an agent in the Cincinnati office, said she was in charge of processing applications from tea party groups, once they were selected by other agents, from April to October 2010, according to the transcript. She said an IRS lawyer in Washington, Carter Hull, micromanaged her work and ultimately delayed the processing of applications by tea party groups.
She said Hull’s interest in the cases was highly unusual. “It was demeaning,” she said. “One of the criteria is to work independently and do research and make decisions based on your experience and education, whereas on this case, I had no autonomy at all through the process.”
Neither Hofacre nor Hull responded to requests for comment.
...