Pentagon Agency Tries to Hoodwink IRS

The Pentagon's inspector general's office, the office charged with exposing fraud in the federal government, provided [1] the IRS with fake documents in order to avoid embarrassment in an audit.

The audit was part of a routine program where one U.S. inspector general checks the work of another. The inspector general's office apparently spent nearly 1,000 hours creating fake documents to cover up a 1988 audit report that they feared would not pass audit muster. It is estimated that the cost to taxpayers of preparing the false documents is approximately $63,000.

The IRS reviewers gave the Pentagon’s audit work a clean bill of health after examining the fake documents. A report was filed by an employee of the Pentagon's inspector general bringing the falsification to the attention of the Senate Finance Committee. "It's a very sad day indeed when the watchdog gets caught cheating," said Senator Charles Grassley, R-IA, in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Senator Grassley is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.