New audit finds IRS can’t keep track of its own software

The Internal Revenue Service soon will have a larger role to play in managing the health records of Americans. But they're having a hard time managing their own records, it seems.

A new audit report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which oversees the IRS, found the agency was not keeping track of its software licenses and did not employ specialized tools to track and manage the multitude of licenses being used daily at the IRS.

"Efficient and cost-effective management of the IRS's software assets is crucial to ensuring that information technology services continue to support the IRS's business operations and help it to provide services to taxpayers efficiently," auditors wrote in their report.

The division of the IRS charged with managing the licenses could not provide auditors with the proper licenses for 24 of the 27 software products reviewed.

The IRS spent $235 million on computer software products during 2011, according to the audit.

Keeping better records of licenses could save the agency money by preventing unnecessary duplicate purchases of the same software, the auditors noted.

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