Irs Pleads For Computer Upgrades

Sat., Feb. 8, 1997

Compiled From Wire Services

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking $500 million to modernize its troubled computer systems as it tries to recover from a widely criticized push to update its computers.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who’s overseeing the IRS modernization, hinted that the agency’s computer woes may not be over.

“It would not surprise me if more problems come to light than have surfaced to date,” Summers said.

So far, the IRS has canceled $1 billion in contracts covering 26 programs from the earlier modernization effort. The General Accounting Office and congressional Republicans have criticized the agency for mismanaging the modernization plan and for failing to properly design a system that allows various databases to talk with each other.

The IRS is seeking to replace aging and deteriorating computer systems that manually capture some of the data from paper tax returns.

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Irs Pleads For Computer Upgrades

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