In addition to costing $4.1 million, the 2010 Internal Revenue Service conference in Anaheim, Calif., could cost two tax agency employees their jobs.
IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel this afternoon announced that he has placed the employees on administrative leave and has started the process to remove them.
The action comes after the IRS received additional information from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) about a party at a private suite at an Anaheim hotel three years ago.
Eating and ethics: According to the IRS, “food was allegedly inappropriately provided free of charge in violation of government ethics standards.”
“When I came to IRS, part of my job was to hold people accountable,” Werfel said. “There was clearly inappropriate behavior involved in this situation, and immediate action is needed.”
The two IRS staffers were not named in the official statement, but The Hill newspaper’s blog On the Money identified them as Fred Schindler and Donald Toda. Both men, according to the blog, had been working on the implementation of the health care reform law.
Werfel’s move should be welcomed by the Republicans on the House
Appropriations Committee who, at a hearing Monday, expressed their
desire that individuals involved in various agency snafus be fired.
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