Tax Administration

Better Training Needed for IRS' New Telephone Assistors Gao ID: GGD-91-83 June 12, 1991

GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) training program for new telephone assistors, whose purpose is to assist taxpayers with questions regarding tax law, their accounts, and other issues relating to filing their tax returns.

GAO found that: (1) the IRS process for selecting task force members to revise its training material was unsatisfactory due to inadequate training, preparation, and clerical support for task force members; (2) despite substantial changes in its instructional materials over the years, IRS has not sufficiently evaluated the effectiveness of its course material; (3) IRS believed that budget and time constraints precluded comprehensive course material evaluation; (4) without adequate evaluation, IRS could not ensure that it provided effective training to its new assistors; (5) IRS tests did not provide adequate assurance that trainees would perform well, since some tests were inconsistent with job performance expectations; (6) IRS relied heavily on on-the-job training (OJT) to ensure adequate training, but OJT training instructors had limited opportunity to identify and remedy all trainee weaknesses; (7) IRS lacked standard performance criteria or tests to evaluate overall training proficiency; and (8) training program problems may be further heightened by IRS instructor selection policy, which did not ensure that only capable instructors taught its courses.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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