The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) issued this press release of a new report: DOJ OIG Releases Report on the Audit of Certain Tax Division Contracts Awarded for Expert Witness Services (9/23/21), here. The report is here. I quickly browsed the report. Most of the report relates to internal process requirements, probably of little interest most readers of this blog. Still, those who encounter DOJ Tax Division experts in their practice might be interested in the report and might even find some use of the information in the report.
The Executive Summary of the Report is on the introductory pages I & ii.
Some interesting points:
- The contracted high hourly rate for the contracts reviewed was $850 for the expert.
- The following observation was made regarding description of the services for the time increments charged (a phenomenon also true of lawyer’s billing on a time basis):
For example, on one invoice, an expert witness described 10 hours of work as “review materials, think about the issues, talk with staff, and prepare for call.” While we are not questioning any amounts associated with the vague invoice descriptions, we believe it is important for the invoices to contain sufficient details to tie the services to the contract deliverables. Therefore, we recommend that the Tax Division require future invoices for contracted expert witness services to contain adequate descriptions that clearly tie to contract deliverables.
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