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Washington, D.C: -- The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today he is pleased to see the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) moving ahead with its much-needed plan to modernize its technology, and he called on both the agency and the contractor to work closely with NTEU and IRS employees on all aspects of the multi-year project.

“The focus on improved technology is appropriate," said NTEU President Robert M. Tobias, "since the right tools are essential to doing the good job that is so important to employees."

Moreover, he said, all indications are that the IRS and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), which this week was awarded the multi?billion?dollar technology improvement contract, understand that "the solutions to the problems of the IRS reside in the minds, talents and experience of its employees." He said the IRS and CSC have pledged to work with NTEU in the technological overhaul of the agency.

NTEU is the largest independent federal sector union, representing more than 155,000 employees in 20 government agencies and departments, including more than 97,000 in the IRS, where it has been engaged in a long?standing partnership effort to address common problems.

The contract awarded CSC is known as the "PRIME" (prime systems integration services) and will seek to create a customized computer system for the IRS that will replace not just old technology, but overlapping systems that in some instances have trouble working with one another.

This marks the first time IRS has gone outside for this kind of technological help, and it comes after several failed internal attempts by the agency to modernize its computer systems.

Nearly 18 months ago, Tobias was sharply critical of a proposed component of the IRS computer modernization plan allowing the contractor, who would not only design and implement the new system but run it as well, to use private sector employees to process federal tax returns.

While this issue has not resurfaced since, the union president repeated his contention that, given the tools, equipment and training to do the work, the men and women of the IRS "could do a comparable job, if not outperform" private sector workers. He said CSC reached the same conclusion and submitted a proposal absent any privatization component.

Moving beyond the welcome skill and experience level of IRS employees, Tobias said the need for taxpayer privacy and the fact that tax administration is an inherently governmental function "lead to the inevitable conclusion" that IRS employees should not only perform this kind of work, but play key roles in the ongoing modernization of this critical agency.

Tobias noted that joint NTEU?IRS task forces are at work now on wide?ranging aspects of IRS restructuring outlined in federal legislation passed earlier this year.