Muscatine

The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush  fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a TIGTA report  released today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The IRS is unable to  account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare  implementation, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration  (TIGTA) report released today.

The “Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund” (HIRIF) was tucked into Obamacare  in order to give the IRS money to enforce the "tax" provisions of the healthcare  law.  The fund, totaling some $1 billion of taxpayer money, was used to roll out  enforcement mechanisms for the approximately 50 tax provisions of Obamacare.

According to the report: “Specifically, the IRS did not account for or attempt to quantify  approximately $67 million [from the slush fund] of indirect ACA costs incurred  for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2012.”

The report also found several  other abuses of taxpayer funds, including:

Travel abuse:  The report  states, “Specifically, we identified 38 IRS employees in two judgmentally  selected business units whose travel was charged to the HIRIF in FY 2012, but no  portion of their salary and related benefits was charged to the HIRIF.” In  short, the IRS was not making sure that employee travel reimbursements had  anything to do with the purpose of the fund. This is not the first time that IRS  employee travel has created a scandal for the agency.

1,272 IRS Obamacare  enforcement agents: The report estimates that total slush fund spending cost  taxpayers the equivalent of 1,272 new full time IRS agents.

The IRS  requested an additional 859 IRS Obamacare enforcement agents for Fiscal Year  2013: According to the report, “The IRS informed us that it requested $360  million and 859 FTEs for FY 2013 to continue implementation of the ACA. However,  the IRS did not receive this requested amount for FY 2013.”

To add insult  to injury, the IRS has told the Inspector General that it will comply with the  recommendations made in the report; unfortunately, the slush fund has been fully  spent, making that promise meaningless.