Is this true?
"Well, as a member of HMRCs floundering Field Farce ( sorry, Field Force ) I was astonished to be told that, due to cut-backs in budgets, myself and twenty of my colleagues were forbidden from making calls for an astonishing 6 weeks recently. We had absolutely NOTHING to do instead. So we did nothing for 6 weeks. Managers aware of this, staff furious. You couldn't make it up......."
Even I am gobsmacked at this!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Whoever that poster is, and if true, does that poster not realise the power they have to remove the people who are destroying the tax collecting agency of the UK? If it is true, and the poster would contact Ken and let the facts be checked, I am sure he would know what to do with it. Perhaps contact an MP to raise it with a Minister today, or just go straight to the Daily Mail. If it is true, it is dynamite, a large number of HMRC's bosses would likely be kicked out and serious changes would have to be implemented.
ReplyDeleteTrevor Scott
I agree with the above.
ReplyDeleteAn external investigating body needs to be brought on site to make a report, and bring to book HMRC boss's responsible for incompetency, aggressive management, bullying and destroying the UK Tax System. These muppets have to go.
This is absolutely true.
ReplyDelete100 Assistant Officers have been withdrawn from making calls and PERMAMENTLY transferred indoors as HMRC have no money to pay for their petrol etc.
A lot of people are unhappy about this.
"An external investigating body needs to be brought on site to make a report"
ReplyDeleteThis was done, it was called the 'Capability Report' which is publicly available and mentioned on this blog.
The problem is that no one wants to take up the challenge against the government for some reason. Even the BBC seems to shying away from stories that make the government and its departments look bad (unless it can be aimed at the lower ranks).
Capability Report
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hmrc.gov.uk/capability/
The latest staff survey report is out today - I'm surprised it isn't posted here yet.
ReplyDeleteAs predicted, the results are absolutely dire and make last year's (discussed here at length recently)look brilliant by comparison:yet Lesley Strathie fronts it up with unbelievable spin and says that improvements are being made!!
I look forward to reading some interesting posts once people have seen it!
You shouldn't be gobsmacked....
ReplyDeleteMany years ago in the days of HMC&E the department hired a naval frigate to catch some drugs runners. They didnt think they would have to pay this back - as the navy and the department are both government organisations after all - but they were faced with a multi million pound bill and one of the uphots was that pretty much all VAT assurance visiting and the associated T&S was blocked for 6 months to pay for it.
Although despicable, the current example is sadly just another case of "plus ca change...."
"The latest staff survey report is out today - I'm surprised it isn't posted here yet."
ReplyDeleteI doubt they will post it on the site too quickly.
"yet Lesley Strathie fronts it up with unbelievable spin and says that improvements are being made!!"
Being made, but not being delivered.
"I look forward to reading some interesting posts once people have seen it!"
I hear the keyboards being sharpened already.
Re anonymous at 16.10 I have long believed that there is some connection between HMRC and this government such that each seems immune to the scrutiny of the other.
ReplyDeleteTax targets are now determined by Politics not right and wrong. Take the evasion (i.e. illegal) of off-shore tax liabilities. Given their track record for naked greed is it conceivable that not one of our MPs evaded tax by utilising an off-shore account? Or one of the many Senior Civil Servants, or one accountant or one lawyer? Or one member of HMRC? Yet how many have been prosecuted - NONE. Bear in mind that HMRCs prosecution Policy is to make examples of those in a position of authority - those who should know better. The amnesty is not guaranteed to anyone. People in the groups I mention must be getting away with it. This is a disgrace. But who will do anything about it - no one.
My only hope is that HMRC breaks - it is very close to it by what I am reading here. There is a mega can of worms just waiting to be opened.
'This is absolutely true.
ReplyDelete100 Assistant Officers have been withdrawn from making calls and PERMAMENTLY transferred indoors as HMRC have no money to pay for their petrol etc.
A lot of people are unhappy about this.
2 February 2010 15:38'
My response to the previous poster:
I know only too well as I work in DMB (the ye olde collectors of taxes) where some of these staff will be coming back into our fold.
Whilst I am certainly NOT laughing at the people affected (as it was their choice to go to Field Farce, and do not hold that against them in any way), I make one thing very clear.
I am NO fan of Field Force and I am truly laughing out loud at the utter knobheads at the very top of the 'management' food chain who actually believed this Heath-Robinson of an idea would actually work!
Alas, yet more concrete evidence that HMRC is completely unfit for purpose, let alone fit to run a bath!
'Capability Report
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hmrc.gov.uk/capability/
2 February 2010 16:18'
What 'capability' exactly?
Re anonymous at 18.54
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points and the powers that be should take due notice.
To back up what you say, I once more bring up the case of Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail. As reported in Private Eye, HMRC was preparing an investigation into his non dom status which unfairly reduces the amount of tax he pays - when lo and behold, Uncle Dave Hartnett personally intervened to stop the investigation.
This proves conclusively that there is a separate law for the rich and powerful and that this organisation is corrupt at the very top.
Indeed the Staff Survey results are Hilarious! Ignore what LS says and go straight to the full report there is no spin that could hide the shocking state of affairs there! Count how many times HMRC finishes BOTTOM out of 96 (yes that's 96!) civil service departments, we really are scraping the barrel...
ReplyDeleteIs HMRC's prosecution policy publicly available?
ReplyDeleteExcising staff becomes a new custom at HMRC...
ReplyDeletehttp://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6988791.ece
"Is HMRC's prosecution policy publicly available?"
ReplyDeleteThis may be of interest to you!!!
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rewrite/index.htm
To backup the post I made 2 February 2010 16:13.
ReplyDeleteI see the BBC has details of the PCS ballot regarding the redundancy payments on their site but how long was it before details of the coding mistakes where posted?
Could it be that the BBC fear losing the license fee's if they upset the government?
Has the BBC even mentioned the recent office closures. Or when HMRC closed all its buildings in Cumbria & Lancashire? Both areas with few jobs to start with.
ReplyDelete3 February 2010 10:58
ReplyDeleteYes they did mention the office closures, oh hang on that was back in 2008 not the recent ones.
Today I telephoned the Daily Telegraph's newsdesk on 0800 316 6977 and mentioned some of these stories of incompetence and mismanagement within HMRC. They are interested, so if anyone with personal involvement with these stories would like to phone or email them, please do.
ReplyDeleteTrevor Scott
VAT visiting officers are also being restricted from carrying out audit visits to businesses, according to management to spend more time discussing "cross tax" cases in the office - but these cases are small in number with the result that VAT officers are also sitting around with not enough to do to keep them busy.
ReplyDeleteToday I telephoned the Daily Telegraph's newsdesk on 0800 316 6977 and mentioned some of these stories of incompetence and mismanagement within HMRC. They are interested, so if anyone with personal involvement with these stories would like to phone or email them, please do.
ReplyDeleteTrevor Scott
3 February 2010 17:13
I would love to but dare not, we are constantly being told not to talk to the press etc. Let's hope some of the ones made 'surplus' from the 130 more offices, they announced they were closing last month, will do it.
Field Force - HMRC's answer to the Child Support Agency!
ReplyDelete