IRS, union agreement violates records law, watchdog says.

• Position: GOVERNMENT RECORDS

Government accountability watchdog group Cause of Action (CoA) filed a legal complaint in May alleging the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) violated the Federal Records Act and the group's right to information by deleting text messages and not archiving instant messages between employees using the Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), Federal Times reported.

According to the CoA complaint, IRS officials said the agency followed a 14-day retention policy and then deleted text messages after two weeks. CoA researchers were told the policy was necessary because keeping too many old messages would slow the system.

CoA's legal complaint states that IRS officials did not obtain a waiver from NARA to allow the destruction of those messages, which would mean the agency had violated the Federal Records Act, Federal Times said.

CoA said it also discovered a 2010 agreement between the IRS and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that prohibits the agency from saving instant messages sent via OCS. The IRS had signed the memo of understanding stating that the service will be used only to facilitate communication between employees as a way to lessen fears that the messages could be used to track employees' work habits, Federal Times reported.

The memo states: "OCS is only intended to be utilized as a communications and collaboration tool" ... "with regard to the...