[quote alias=dentroef id=6908551 date=201305171206]
WASHINGTON -
Steven Miller, het waarnemend hoofd van de Amerikaans belastingdienst IRS, is woensdag afgetreden vanwege een schandaal rond mogelijke partijdigheid. Dat heeft de Amerikaanse president Barack Obama woensdag (plaatselijke tijd) bekendgemaakt.
Steven Miller werd het dringende verzoek gedaan op te stappen
klinkt toch anders
Steven Miller, who was not in charge of the IRS at the time of the wrongdoing, will step aside in light of the bureau’s “inexcusable” misconduct. A visibly angry Obama said that the extra screening for Tea Party groups before the presidential election last year was “an outrage.”
“I am angry about it,” Obama said, adding that the American people should be upset, as well. “Everybody believes what happened... is an outrage. The good news is that it's fixable...I'll do everything in my power to ensure that this never happens again.”
His short remarks were in response to the controversy that has reverberated throughout Washington in recent days. Obama previously said the accusations were “outrageous” but waited for a report from the US Treasury Department’s inspector general to publicly elaborate on the matter.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who is also a top Obama deputy, requested Miller’s resignation. Miller will not step down immediately, but in June, according to NBC News.
“An urgent need to restore public trust,” Lew wrote in a letter to Miller. “I find it necessary at this time to request your resignation.”
The results of the inspector general’s probe, which were made public Tuesday, do not blame IRS leadership in Washington for initiating the screening process - but do fault them for failing to adequately supervise employees in the Cincinnati office where the targeting program was born. Lori Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt organizations department, blamed “low level employees” for using terms like “Tea Party” and “patriot” to filter and prevent right-wing groups from being granted tax-exempt status due to suspicions they were engaged solely in political activities.