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Washington, D.C.—The head of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today described as “absolutely outrageous” information contained in a government report that some 33,000 federal contractors owe more than $3 billion in back taxes.

“At the minimum,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), “every single one of these contractors should immediately be barred from doing business with the federal government.” This kind of “blatant abuse of the privilege of serving the American people” serves to disqualify these contractors, she said.

Kelley and NTEU have been leading the fight against the administration’s drive to contract an increasing number of federal jobs—as many as one out of every two—to private sector companies.

A detailed review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) describes egregious violations of tax law by private contractors, including stories of a contractor who transferred payroll taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks to a foreign bank account rather than the U.S. government; another who misused $18 million in payroll taxes for personal use; and a third who closed businesses and began new ones when the outstanding tax bills got too high.

“NTEU has consistently argued that wholesale contracting of federal work to private companies is both foolish and dangerous because there is no accountability for the behavior of private contractors—not to mention that government oversight of private contractors is weak, at best,” President Kelley said.

Not only does the federal government consistently check to see that federal employees are paying their fair share of federal income tax, but employees of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are held to an even higher standard. IRS employees who do not pay federal taxes on time are in violation of a mandatory removal law.

“Federal contractors should be held to the same standard,” Kelley said.

Apart from the many problems associated with contracting out federal work, the NTEU leader also noted that allowing continuation of the kind of contractor behavior described in the GAO report “effectively makes a mockery of Internal Revenue Service claims that it is doing all it can to close the gap” between tax revenue owed and money collected.

“Along with prosecuting the offending contractors—and keeping federal jobs in the hands of professional, accountable federal workers—the best way to address this situation is by providing IRS employees with the resources they need to do their jobs, something that is not now being done,” the union president said.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including about 90,000 in the IRS.