IRS nixes CSC bids

The IRS won't consider Computer Sciences Corp. for work on future contracts to modernize its tax enforcement and compliance systems, Commissioner Mark Everson told lawmakers this month.

The action stems from CSC's inability to meet the latest delivery date in April for the first release of the Integrated Financial System, the tax agency's new core accounting system.

"I have decided to direct our upcoming enforcement modernization projects for collection contract support and filing and payment compliance to other contractors," Everson said in a letter to Mike Laphen, CSC president and chief operating officer, that he showed to members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight.

The action was designed to limit the number of modernization projects CSC does, he said. The decision to omit CSC from the contracts was the first consequence stemming from the company's failure to deliver major modernization systems.

The commissioner also said that he would "carefully assess CSC's performance on current projects and the results of CSC's overall program management and integration efforts before awarding any follow-on work for existing projects."

CSC was not alone in its responsibility for failure to deliver business systems modernization, Everson said. "We were not correctly configured, so it got away from us," he said. He praised CSC for the success of the e-Services suite of applications for taxpayers and tax professionals.

IRS will release its new core accounting system by Sept. 30, Everson said. The delay was unavoidable, but CSC will absorb the costs from April until IFS is released, said Paul Cofoni, the company's federal sector president.

"CSC encountered data conditions unknown to us in the legacy systems, so we have to go back and redesign and retest," he said.