IRS broke rules in firing probationary employees, Treasury Department watchdog finds

The IRS broke its own rules when it fired thousands of employees earlier this year on the orders of the Trump administration, the Treasury Department’s internal watchdog agency found last week.

The terminated employees were not given proper notice, nor was their performance taken into account when getting rid of them, the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) concluded in a report released on Thursday.

“Internal procedures were not followed when sending the termination notices. Policies and procedures require the IRS to give probationary employees a 30-day notice and consider their performance prior to terminating them,” TIGTA found.

In February, the IRS fired 6,700 employees designated as probationary, meaning they were working for the agency on a tria