Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

TRAINING PROGRAM COSTS IRS BILLIONS

A report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, estimated that in cases it had checked the government lost more than $1 million in taxes for each new worker who completed a 26-month training course under the tutelage of senior auditors.

"It is clear that the use of experienced revenue agents to train new agents carries a significant cost in terms of unrealized audit revenues," the General Accounting Office said in its report. "It is essential that IRS explore alternatives to its present training program."

The IRS had reached much the same conclusion in its own survey of training procedures, although the agency found a lower revenue loss than did the GAO. However, the IRS is concerned enough about the loss that is planning to hire private contractors to conduct some training in the next budget year.

Ellen Murphy, IRS director of public affairs, said Tuesday that the GAO finding has no relevance over the last two years because of a hiring freeze.

"When we resume hiring new people, we will be doing a lot more of on-line training - reserving intensive classroom training for contractors - . . . and having trainees go with experienced auditors to see how the job should be done," she said.

The $6.1 billion IRS budget that President Bush has proposed for 1991 would allow the agency to hire 2,400 auditors. It now has about 16,000.

The GAO report projected that it will take up to four years before tax collections will rise enough to offset the costs of hiring new agents - and make up for the revenue lost during training.