The Washington Post has an interesting article, Audit Urges End of IRS’s Employee Tuition Plan; Administrative Costs Said to Be "Far Too High":

The IRS’s employee tuition assistance program has spent more than 60% of its funds — or $4.4 million in two years — on administrative costs, employing the equivalent of 30 full-time workers while turning away hundreds of employees for lack of funds, an inspector general audit has found. The audit … suggests the IRS’s Human Resources Investment Fund should be abandoned. Its findings come as Treasury Secretary John W. Snow pleads to Congress for more funding for the nation’s tax collection agency….

The tuition plan was established as part of the IRS reorganization of 1998 to promote career development and improve employees’ skills. Course subjects include accounting, computers and foreign languages. But in 2002 and 2003, only $2.8 million of the program’s $7.2 million budget went to tuition assistance. The remainder was swallowed by administrative costs and the salaries of more than 80 employees detailed to the project, most of them part time. During that time, 1,680 employees were rejected for tuition assistance for lack of funds.

For a copy of the audit, see here.  (Thanks to reader Ben Cunningham for the tip.)