A new report released from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) showed that the Internal Revenue Service failed to correct issues found in earlier pandemic benefit programs and ended up sending Recovery Rebate Credit payments to deceased or otherwise ineligible individuals in the latest round of aid resulting from the American Rescue Plan.

According to the TIGTA’s final audit report issued last week, “the IRS issued more than 1.2 million payments totaling $1.9 billion to potentially ineligible individuals,” and blamed the improper payments on “deficiencies TIGTA previously reported based on its review of the IRS’s implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act Economic Impact Payments that the IRS did not address.”

So, the IRS knew of problems that resulted in CARES Act funds being wasted, but the IRS didn’t address or fix those issues, so more of the same wasteful problems reoccurred when American Rescue Plan benefits were distributed. Classic bureaucracy.