[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 139 (Tuesday, July 21, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39118-39119]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-19343]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Internal Revenue Service
Privacy Act of 1974: Computer Matching Program
AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service, Treasury.
[[Page 39119]]
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a, the Privacy Act of 1974, as
amended, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines on
the Conduct of Matching Programs, notice is hereby given of the conduct
of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program of computer matches.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This notice will be effective August 20, 1998, unless
comments dictate otherwise.
ADDRESSES: Comments or inquiries may be mailed to the Chief Inspector,
Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
20224.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Jacqueline Greening, Internal
Auditor, Quality Assurance and Oversight Section, Office of Planning
and Management, Office of Assistant Chief Inspector (Internal Auditor),
Internal Revenue Service, (202) 622-5911.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: IRS management is responsible for
discouraging the perpetration of irregular or illegal acts and limiting
any exposure if an integrity breach occurs. To assist in accomplishing
this mission, the Inspection Service has enhanced its conventional
audit and investigative activities with a program to detect and deter
unauthorized access (UNAX) by IRS employees to taxpayer information.
The Audit Trail Lead Analysis System (ATLAS) is a system designed
to detect unauthorized access to taxpayer records. It does so by
identifying IRS employees who have accessed taxpayer records using the
Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) in a manner that appears to be
inconsistent with standard IRS practice.
One of the five IRS organizational strategies is to ensure public
confidence in the integrity of the IRS by a dedication to the highest
ethical standards. One of the ways that the Inspection Service supports
this objective is to provide IRS management an assessment of the
organization's ethical environment through the UNAX Program, which is
part of the overall Inspection Service Integrity Program.
Computer matching is the most feasible method of performing
comprehensive analysis of employee, taxpayer, and tax administration
data because of the large number of employees (56,000 employees access
IDRS); the geographical dispersion of IRS offices and employees
(nationwide); and the tremendous volume of computerized data that is
available for analysis (100 million IDRS transactions are generated
each month).
This program will be conducted using audit trails and IDRS records
generated from each Service Center. Four years of audit trail records
will be available to search.
NAME OF SOURCE AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service.
NAME OF RECIPIENT AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service.
BEGINNING AND COMPLETION DATES: This program of computer matches is
expected to commence on July 31, 1998, but not earlier than the
fortieth day after copies of the Computer Matching Agreement are
provided to the Congress and OMB unless comments dictate otherwise. The
program of computer matches is expected to conclude at the end of the
eighteenth month after the beginning date (January 31, 2000).
PURPOSE: The purpose of this program of computer matches is to detect
unauthorized access to taxpayer records by IRS employees. The system
will identify employees who have accessed taxpayer records using the
IDRS in a manner that appears to be inconsistent with standard IRS
practice.
AUTHORITY: 5 U.S.C. 301, 26 U.S.C. 7213, 7213A, 7214, 7608, 7801, 7802,
7803, 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(B); and Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1952,
pursuant to Section 7804(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. The
Computer Security Act of 1987 (Pub. L. 100-235). The Federal Managers'
Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) (Pub. L. 97-255). Executive Order 12674
of April 12, 1989, entitled, ``Principles of Ethical Conduct for
Government Officers and Employees.'' OMB Circular A-130, ``Management
of Federal Information Resources,'' dated February 8, 1996. OMB
Circular A-123, ``Internal Control Systems,'' dated August 16, 1983.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED: Current and former employees of the
IRS and contractors for the IRS.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS COVERED: Included in this program of computer
matches is information related to computer inquiries and entries to the
IDRS (Treasury/IRS 34.018) made by IRS employees: employee
identification numbers and employee social security numbers, command
codes used, taxpayer identification number accessed, terminal from
which access occurred, date and time of access. Information from the
Individual Master File (IMF) (Treasury/IRS 24.030), the Business Master
File (BMF) (Treasury/IRS 24.046), and the Treasury Integrated
Management Information System (TIMIS) (Treasury/DO .002) will be used
to obtain employee address and spouse's name.
Other information from these files not uniquely pertaining to the
IRS employee(s) but that could possibly establish a relationship
between the IRS employee(s) and the account(s) accessed will be used to
determine the actions or the effect of actions of employee(s) or to
corroborate declarations or statements by employee(s). From IDRS
(Treasury/IRS 34.018): Taxpayer identification number and tax period.
From IMF (Treasury/IRS 24.030) and BMF (Treasury/IRS 24.046): Taxpayer
entity information, including address, current and prior name, and tax
account status. From TIMIS (Treasury/DO .002): employee identifying and
locating information, including address, current name and name of
spouse.
Dated: July 15, 1998.
Shelia Y. McCann,
Deputy Assistant Secretary (Administration).
[FR Doc. 98-19343 Filed 7-20-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4830-01-P
