The IRS is Illegally Destroying Documents Because of Deal with a Union

You can ignore laws and destroy public documents if a union boss tells you to, right?  Well that must be what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen believes, because that is exactly what he has been doing.  Koskinen regularly allows his employees to delete official records because of a deal he struck with a government employee union.

The Daily Caller explains:

The IRS has an agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union that prohibits the agency from saving any instant message records of its employees, documents obtained by Cause of Action Institute – the group suing the IRS – show.

Federal laws, however, require the agency to preserve such records. The federal tax agency has been the focus of a continuing scandal.

“The IRS and Commissioner Koskinen have a legal obligation to preserve official work communications between employees,” Cause of Action Institute President and CEO Alfred J. Lechner Jr. said in a statement. “It appears that federal records are being deleted because the IRS, in a deal with its employee union, refuses to preserve certain types of electronic communications.”

How far will we let the lawlessness of the IRS go?  We get proof on top of proof on top of proof that the IRS is corrupt from top to bottom, yet they are allowed to continue operating with virtual impunity.

Thankfully the Cause of Action Institute is fighting back in this case atleast.  The government accountability organization has filed a legal complaint against Koskinen.  They released a statment on their suit:

Documents obtained by CoA Institute show that the IRS has a private agreement with its employee union stipulating that the agency will not save the instant message records of its employees. But the IRS cannot allow such an agreement to supersede its statutory obligations to preserve records.  In addition, the IRS is violating the law by regularly deleting all employee text messages as a matter of convenience.

CoA Institute filed its lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force the IRS to comply with its obligations under the Federal Records Act (FRA) to capture and preserve all relevant records.  The complaint seeks an order from the court to require the IRS to establish appropriate guidelines for the preservation of federal employees’ instant message and text message records and to preserve all such records permanently until the establishment of those guidelines.

Best of luck to CoA Institute in their efforts to hold Koskinen accountable.  We will be cheering you on.