(Bloomberg) The Internal Revenue Service has appointed David Fisher, chief financial officer of the Government Accountability Office, as a senior executive to help the tax agency recover from the controversy over its scrutiny of small-government groups.
Fisher will be charged with improving internal controls and “restoring the integrity of IRS operations,” Danny Werfel, the acting IRS commissioner, said in a statement today announcing Fisher’s appointment as the agency’s chief risk officer and senior adviser.
“His role in the government financial community, bolstered by his significant achievements and his willingness to ensure the organization’s goals are served, has prepared him well to assume this position,” Werfel said.
Four congressional committees and the U.S. Justice Department are investigating the IRS’s extra scrutiny of groups with “Tea Party” and “patriot” in their names when they were applying for tax-exempt status.
Already, three IRS officials have left their jobs as a result of the controversy.
Steven Miller, the former acting commissioner, was forced out of that job. Joseph Grant, who oversaw tax-exempt groups and government entities, announced his retirement eight days after being promoted.
Lois Lerner, who managed the office that handled applications from tax-exempt groups, was placed on paid administrative leave May 23. She disclosed the IRS’s actions May 10 and apologized, four days before an inspector general’s report was released.
Congressional Panel
Werfel became acting IRS commissioner May 22. He is scheduled to make his first appearance before a congressional panel June 3 to testify before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
“It is critical to gain a clear understanding of how the IRS uses the taxpayer dollars it receives from Congress and to research how our bill can help prevent abuses like those revealed in the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report from ever happening again,”
Representative Ander Crenshaw, a Florida Republican and the subcommittee’s chairman, said in a statement.
