IRS Firings Failed to Account for Performance, Watchdog Finds (1)

The IRS failed to consider the performance of thousands of probationary employees when it first fired them earlier this year, though the agency cited it as a reason for termination, the agency’s watchdog found.

The Trump administration fired over 7,000 IRS probationary employees in February as part of its efforts to shrink the government. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency was leading the steep cuts, with tens of thousands fired government-wide. Some of group’s workers were embeded—and remain—within the IRS.

At the time, several top leaders at the agency objected to the move to fire workers and the standardized language they deemed false: “taking into account your performance, and in light of current mission needs, the Agency finds that your continued employment at the Agency is not in the public interest.”

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a report Tuesday that nearly all the terminated probationary employees either didn’t have a performance rating or were rated as “fully successful or better.”

“We found that employees generally received the following remarks regarding their job performance: consistent; courteous; professional; respectful; mindful; and knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and made valuable contributions,” TIGTA said.

IRS officials said the language in the termination letters was provided by the Office of Personnel Management and Treasury Department and couldn’t be changed. The letter was also sent unsigned after IRS officials didn’t want to put their name on it with performance as a factor of termination.

The IRS also fired employees who were considered critical to its mission. The agency later attempted to rehire 113 employees because they were essential to its mission.

While the probationary workers were brought back to the agency following a series of lawsuits, more than half of them took the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer or resigned for other reasons. Just over 3,000 were reinstated in May.