Cosgrave Leaves IRS, Cites 'Personal Reasons'

Paul Cosgrave, the chief information officer of the Internal Revenue Service, has resigned and will leave office by the middle of the month."I am leaving because of personal reasons," Cosgrave said Jan. 4, adding that he wanted to spend time with his family in New York and work in the private sector."I have something lined up in the information technology area, the new economy, if you will," he said, declining further comment on his plans.IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti said, "His leadership and dedication have been crucial to the IRS, helping us successfully reach several pivotal milestones in our efforts to modernize the nation's tax agency."Cosgrave joined the IRS in July 1998 as a consultant and became CIO in August 1998. He said one of his biggest accomplishments was developing the IRS enterprise architecture. The blueprint defines how business operations will be improved and how the IRS will take advantage of technology.One of his major challenges was reorganizing the agency's disjointed IT resources into a more consistent structure entirely managed by the CIO.When Cosgrave joined the IRS, it was struggling with a decade-long effort to overhaul its tax processing systems. As CIO, he tackled the agency's three-phase plan to reorganize its work by taxpayer type rather than geographic region."These were the best years, also the fastest," Cosgrave said. "The best thing was the fantastic work force, the tremendously powerful team of people."Cosgrave declined to comment on the incoming Bush administration's view of IT, but said his successor would have to continue making dynamic changes.