IRS Gives Contract to Equifax [semi-satire]

Semi-News/Semi-Satire ^ | 8 Oct 2017 | John Semmens

[John Semmens]

Despite a hack of its database that exposed the personal information of 145 million of its customers, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted a no-bid $7.5 million contract to Equifax. Under the terms of the contract the company will handle the personal information of millions of taxpayers.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called the contract "bad on so many levels. What kind of fool trusts a firm that has just experienced a huge data breach to handle more of the same kind of data? On top of this, the 'no-bid' process evades procurement guidelines calling for competitive bids from multiple firms. This is designed to ensure fairness and value for the taxpayers' dollars. The no-bid option is only there for instances where there is only one possible source for providing the services requested. That clearly isn't the case here."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) concurred with Grassley's concerns, "the IRS lacks the cybersecurity needed to safeguard taxpayer information that most private corporations have. I would think that the demonstrated breach suffered by Equifax would make them, at least for the time being, an unqualified bidder. This deal smells."

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen characterized the Senators' fears as "overwrought. Our mission at the IRS is to maximize the revenue extracted from taxpayers. While we'd naturally prefer that personal data be secured from hackers it is not essential to our mission to achieve that level of security. We may have 'bent' the rules a bit with the no-bid contract, but I'd like to point out that this saved the IRS the trouble of having to scrutinize a bevy of competing firms and freed up internal resources to make them available for scrutinizing right-wing political groups seeking nonprofit status."

if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...

http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php?topic=284640.0