In December 2011 I wrote:
"Sir Andrew Park, a former High Court judge, will investigate HMRC agreements made with a number of companies including Vodafone and Goldman Sachs (the vampire squid).The deadline for the report was, according to Steve Barclay MP (and member of PAC), Spring 2012.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has been asked by MPs to carry out an investigation beyond its usual remit to examine up to 10 specific deals approved by HMRC, Sir Andrew will lead the investigation.
The PAC report will heavily criticise David "Jack" Hartnett.
How very "civil service" that his departure from HMRC was announced/arranged prior to the publication of the report! "
Well here we are enduring a rather wet, windy and drought ridden British "Spring"; yet still no sign of the report.
How very odd, and also how very odd that there are no minutes of HMRC board meetings this year!
My thanks therefore to a loyal reader who has pointed out the reason for the absence of the NAO report, it appears that the deadline has been quietly shifted back (without any announcement) to at least Summer this year.
"The C&AG aims to report the results of this work to the Public Accounts Committee in summer 2012."By the way "aims to report" is not a very firm "deadline!
Is this "slippage" because the investigation is taking so long, or is it because they don't want the report issued before Hartnett officially leaves in summer?
Oh and by the way, they are only looking at five deals, not 10 originally discussed in 2011; so it's probably not the workload that has caused this "slippage".
I will ask NAO why they have delayed this, and will post their answer if I get one.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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If Jack retires before the NAO report, how on earth are the PAC going to get him to render account for the dodgy deals? Extradite him from the Cayman's?
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole rumpus between Hodge and GOD was about the latter's insistence that mandarins moved to other departments (eg Homer being deported to HMRC after the UKBA fiasco) must still account for their previous cock-ups? Or does that not apply to retired civil servants?
ReplyDeletePerhaps the NAO are playing a waiting game in the hope that Margaret Hodge would fall under a bus or something?
ReplyDeleteKen,
ReplyDeleteYou say the NAO have pushed back their report but the PAC seem to have lined up further public humiliation of Jack and Homer on the dodgy settlements starting from May 21. How come?
http://www.parliament.uk/pac
21 May 2012
3:15 pm Subject: Tax Disputes/New governance package
Witness(es): Lin Homer, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax, HMRC
Location: Room 15, Palace of Westminster
13 June 2012
3:15 pm Subject: Tax Disputes/New governance package
Witness(es): Lin Homer, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax, HMRC
Location: Room 15, Palace of Westminster