Looks like this is the story [1], though it seems the reason is actually some kind of funding-related issue: Wang was working under streamlined critical pay au

Looks like this is the story [1], though it seems the reason is actually some kind of funding-related issue: Wang was working under streamlined critical pay authority the agency has had since its landmark 1998 restructuring. It gave the IRS 40 slots under which it could pay temporary, full-time employees higher than GS rates. Former Commissioner John Koskinen pointed out Congress did not re-up this authority in 2013, despite his entreaties to former Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “The last one ran out this past summer,” Koskinen said. The departures included Wang. He says he applied to become a GS-15 or Senior Executive Service member so he could see through the assembler-to-Java project. But his approval didn’t come through until a week before his employment authority expired. By then he’d accepted another job. Wang says he had a house to pay for, kids to educate. Koskinen confirms the agency wanted to convert Wang. But the process of approval from Treasury headquarters and the Office of Personnel Management simply took too long. And here's a follow-up from this year [2] which also describes the patent that came out of that work [3]. [1] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/irs-clutches-its-modernization-holy-grail/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/... [2] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/irs-programming-mystery-continues/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/... [3] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IRS-patent-10_2019.pdf https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IR...