JOHN FUND: Name That Bureaucrat: IRS Scandal Shows That Decisionmakers Must Be Held Accountable. “It’s taken nearly three months to begin to peel back the onion and discover the chain of command in the IRS scandal. One of the bureaucracy’s biggest weapons against scrutiny and accountability is its ability to hide who actually makes decisions and who should be held responsible for them. Back in May, former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman didn’t even pretend to know how the scandal had happened.”

On the other hand, some people seem fine with bureaucratic diffusion of responsibility: “There are nearly 100,000 people working for the IRS. The IRS has an Inspector General who keeps busy and issues reports. When the Inspector General issues a report there is always something that somebody, somewhere has done wrong.”

Related: Tax Court: IRS Must Sign Interrogatories Under Oath, Just Like Taxpayers.