United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-08-17 monographic deposited born digital 50 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-920 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920 P0b002ee18038249c f:d01920 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920 GAO-01-920 Information systems Information technology Internal controls Systems conversions Budget outlays IRS Information Technology Investments Account Other Written Product A01602 This report reviews Internal Revenue Service (IRS) expenditures relating to its business systems modernization. IRS obligated and expended available Information Technology Investment Account (ITIA) appropriations in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 to pay for external business systems modernization costs. In fiscal years 1999 and 2000, IRS expended about $12.8 million and $120.2 million, respectively, of ITIA appropriations and, as of September 30, 2000, had an additional $66 million of ITIA appropriations obligated for its external business systems, modernization costs. IRS' use of ITIA appropriations appears to be for no purposes consistent with the fiscal year 1998 and 1999 appropriations acts and within the $249 million approved ITIA expenditure plans. IRS used its information systems (IS) appropriations and other appropriations to fund both internal and external business systems modernization costs. IRS paid its internal business systems modernization costs from the IS; Tax Law Enforcement; and Processing, Assistance, and Management appropriations. However, the amount of these costs is unknown because IRS did not have a cost accounting system in place to track its internal costs for business systems modernization. IRS initiated actions in fiscal year 2000 to begin tracking its internal costs associated with specific projects through the use of project accounting codes in conjunction with its time and attendance reporting. However, these actions were not fully implemented during the time of GAO's review. In addition, IRS used its IS appropriations to fund some external business systems modernization costs. In fiscal years 1999 and 2000, IRS expended $48.6 million of IS appropriations to pay for external business systems modernization costs. Also during this period, IRS expended an additional $9.3 million of IS appropriations for both modernization and nonmodernization costs but could not distinguish between the two. There were no instances in which IRS' internal controls failed to assure that expenditures against ITIA appropriations were for business systems modernization. However, GAO recently reported that, despite important progress, IRS has yet to fully implement the capabilities needed to effectively manage the business systems modernization program. In addition, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported that internal controls for managing IRS' business systems modernization efforts were inadequate before the Business Systems Modernization Office began operations in July 2000 but have since improved. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920.pdf GAO-01-920 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-920 Other Written Product GAO-01-920; Internal Revenue Service: Results of Review of IRS Spending for Business Systems Modernization; Information systems Information technology Internal controls Systems conversions Budget outlays IRS Information Technology Investments Account Public Law 105-61 Public Law 105-174 Public Law 105-277 Conf. Rept. 105-284 Conf. Rept. 105-825