Following on from my recent article about "Jack" Hartnett and the demise of the Grande Dame, I have been pondering how the government will remove her (whilst she is still on sick leave) without admitting that she has been removed from office for failure.
The answer is in fact staring us all in the face, and is in the public domain.
Lesley Strathie is currently the cross-government Head of the Operational Delivery Profession.
Evidently running HMRC is not challenging or time consuming enough!
The Grande Dame's role as the Head of Profession is to champion the improvement of front line services across the Civil Service, and to lead the development of the profession across government.
An organogram of her role can be found on this link.
Given that she already has a role set up outside of HMRC it will be but a simple matter to "beef up the role" a little, and formally transfer her across (doubtless at an inflated salary) without ever admitting that she has been fired or removed from office for failure.
In short, in order to avoid the massive embarrassment of admitting failure, it looks as though the government will reward her for failure.
It is of course ironic that during a time of cuts and austerity the taxpayers will be asked to fund another meaningless "new" quango, run by a failure. However, it seems that our political leaders "enjoy" being "ironic"!
The above is of course mere speculation on my part.
Several questions now spring to mind, if my speculation is correct:
1 When will our political "elite" bother to tell us about this move?
2 How much will the Grande Dame be paid in her new role?
3 Will she be given a "redundancy" payment from HMRC?
4 How much will the new quango cost the taxpayer?
5 Is this a "real" job, or merely a means to avoid publicly admitting that she and HMRC have failed?
6 What is the mission of the "new" quango?
7 Does the "new" quango have a hope in hell of succeeding? (answer: "No")
8 Who else is for the chop, and at what cost to the taxpayer?
Tax does have to be taxing.
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The project has already been heavily altered. Originally called POD, Proffesionalising Operational Delivery, it was renamed earlier this year to OPD!
ReplyDeleteStrathie coulnt even roll it out in HMRC let alone be a "champion" (the civil service loves champions), for the wider service.
Some HMRC bods have taken exams accredited by Cardiff university. We shall have to wait and see what benefits accrue from this new wheeze. Suffice it to say, AOs and AAs will have to make do with endless "on line learning" as decreed by their managers.
I haven't even started yet and my appraisal mentioned opd, but my manager knew as little as I did on the subject. We have to go on the intranet to figure it out for ourselves.
It's a joke to be honest. If Strathie leaves HMRC (and everyone I know of thinks she is a dead cert to not come back), bigger challenges await the poor bloody infantry on the front line.
More freaking pacesetter and yet another initiative to raise "engagement".
It's a madhouse, it truly is.
15:42
ReplyDeleteTheyre still doing "on-line learning"?
Glad I left that shithole.
I remember a colleague of mine asking for a little assisstance on an external VAT technical course they were thinking of enrolling on and the reply was No, the on-line learning should do you.
Needless to say the colleague didnt hang around long in HMRC.
The state the place is now.
As Bomber Harris would say
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind".
What is taketh with one hand is giveth by another (with apologies to the scriptures)
ReplyDeleteDaily Mail today Thurday 25th August
P.10 "Taxman to claw back £5bn hidden in Swiss banks."
p. 28 "£27bn is written off in tax shambles."
WTF is going on FFS?!
@19.36
ReplyDeleteYes, on-line learning is still the rage. Cut backs on training (and trainers) is going at a fair clip now.
Why bother to train staff with human beings when you can sit on front of a screen? It's only tax after all!!!
The place is beyond a joke. And to be honest, it's 6 years of budget cuts after the botched merger that is to blame.
Wait for the next people survey results that will be available in January 2012. It's going to be headless chickens time at HMRC.
I have heard that David Gauke is made of much sterner stuff that the hapless Stephen Timms. Action will be swift and severe as soon as the latest misery index ( otherwise known as employee engagement) is published.
To add to the mix they are recruiting a new Head of Chief Executives Private Office (G6) and Private Secretary to the Chief Executive (G7) - both posts are currently filled by staff who came across from DWP when DLS got the job. So why are they advertsing the posts again? Could it be that all three are transfering?
ReplyDeleteThough I'm no fan of DLS and was also speculating how she would be sidelined out of her post, this now looks to be in extremely bad taste given the nature and severity of her illness. Have a heart and remove this article.
ReplyDelete