The Internal Revenue Service has rehired hundreds of former employees who had conduct or performance problems, according to a report released Thursday from a government watchdog.

“Based on the types of prior performance and conduct issues we identified, rehiring certain employees presents increased risk to the IRS and taxpayers,” Russell George, the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, said in a statement.

Overall, the agency said 824 people who were rehired had substantiated performance issues in the past. Some examples:

• 141 of those rehires had prior tax problems, including five individuals found by IRS management to have “willfully” not filed their own tax returns.

• Three rehired employees had been removed for abusing leave, including one who had been absent for 312 hours. That person’s manager had urged that the person not be rehired.

• Some rehired employees had been caught peeking at taxpayer information when they had no authority to do so.

In a response, the IRS said it revamped its hiring process in 2012 and said it believed its current process is “more than adequate” to reduce risks to taxpayers, federal agencies and employees.

The problem ex-employees were rehired from January 2010 to September 2013, the watchdog said. They were among 7,168 former workers who were rehired.

“While most rehired employees did not have performance or conduct issues associated with their previous IRS employment, we determined that 824, about 11 percent, had prior substantiated performance issues,” the inspector general said.