Rewarding Failure - The Gray Scale II

As HMRC continues to butcher its headcount, in the drive to "improve" efficiency and reduce costs, it must be heartening to those who have been/are about to be fired to know that Paul Gray, the ex Chairman of HMRC who was responsible for losing 25 million data records, has found a new job.

BTW, Gray left HMRC with a £2.3M pension and a payoff of £400K.

Anyhoo he is now working for Praesta, helping their executives "develop their potential".

Now, as we know, Gray was initially farmed out to the Cabinet Orifice (senior members of HMRC are never left out in the cold, that simply wouldn't be very nice would it?).

Having left the Cabinet Orifice, he seemingly was still needing to earn a few pennies to keep the wolves from the door.

Luckily Praesta offered him a job.

Oh, one thing that I should mention, Praesta has £650K worth of contracts with the Government.

It warms the cockles of my heart to see HMRC and the government look after its ex employees so well. I assume that the 25,000 staff who have been/will be fired will also be treated as well?

HMRC: rewarding failure, punishing enterprise!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Footing The Bill

The long a fruitless search last year, by the Metropolitan Police, for the missing data discs costs £473K.

It should of course come as no surprise to learn that the bill is to be paid for by the taxpayer.

Financial minister Jane Kennedy, in a written answer to Parliament, revealed the costs. The Met has said that it will try to recover the full costs from HMRC (who in turn will bill us).

Seemingly this was the most expensive lost-property inquiry ever in the UK.

Maybe Paul Gray, chairman of HMRC at the time the discs went missing, could be asked to make a contribution to the costs from his payout of £137,591 and his pension pot?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Rewarding Failure - The Gray Scale

As is reasonably well known, the civil service has a grading structure which determines salary, pension, perks, etc etc.

However, as with all government orifices there are nuances etc that may not be so well known. Doubtless you will all recall the datagate fiasco of last year, where HMRC lost the data records of 25 million people and put their personal security at risk.

At that time Paul Gray, CEO of HMRC, was chosen to fall on his sword for this fark up and leave HMRC. Not that many tears were shed for him at the time, because he happily slipped into a new role in another part of the civil service (heaven forfend any senior member of the civil service should ever lose their job over something that they were responsible for!).

Within weeks, he had moved into the Cabinet Orifice where he led a project on 'developing civil servant skills' before his contract finally expired in December.

However, what was not revealed at the time was how much he was paid off for leaving HMRC. The payoff has now finally come to light.

How much do you think he got for leaving HMRC, after taking some of the responsibility for losing 25 million data sets?

Maestro, cue a role on the drums please!

Paul Gray received a payoff of........£400,000.

His salary when he was in HMRC was £200K per annum, so that means he got a two year pay off.

By the way, he has now also managed to negotiate a retirement package that will be officially revealed in the HMRC's annual report next month.

This particular civil service grade and pay scale shall henceforth be known as "The Gray Scale", applicable to all senior civil servants those who fail in their jobs.

HMRC: rewarding failure, punishing enterprise!

Tax does have to be taxing.

The New Statesman, Britain's leading political magazine is delighted to announce that HMRC Is Shite has been nominated for a New Media Award in the category of Campaign For Change. The campaign for change award will go to the individual or organisation that has most effectively influenced opinions and behaviour through the use of new media technology. The winner of this award will champion a cause and provide information and tools to instigate change.

The full press release can be downloaded here.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Rewarding Failure

In the rarefied world of Whitehall, where reality has yet to cross the threshold of those hallowed corridors, rewarding failure is second nature to the politicians and civil servants who inhabit its warrens and bunkers.

Therefore it should come as no surprise to learn that, following hot on the heals of Richard Summersgill receiving a CBE and Paul Gray being re employed, staff in HMRC who lost the personal details of 25 million families have received a £19M performance-related bonus.

Some of the payments, worth up to £8K each, were made at the end of November; just after Datagate.

I would note that HMRC has publicly stated that there have been seven data breaches since April 2005 (there may well of course be others that have yet to be discovered/announced).

The good news for the staff of HMRC is that the payout is 70% up on the previous year, which was a mere £11M.

Value for money indeed, and doubtless well "deserved"!

Figures released show 220 senior HMRC staff received bonuses for 2006-7 worth £1.7M, an average of £8K each.

Nearly 38,000 other workers received bonuses worth £17.2M, an average of £453 each.

Those of you who are worried that, given the data losses and shambles over tax credits, these payments are not actually deserved need not fear.

Jane Kennedy, a Treasury minister, said that the increase was the result of a "pay assimilation exercise" after HM Customs and Excise and Inland Revenue merged in 2005.

In other words it's not a bonus at all.

So that's alright then, isn't it?

It is, after all, only taxpayers' money!

www.hmrcisshite.com is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Systemic Failure

Quell surprise!

David Hartnett, the director general of the HMRC, has admitted that there have been other HMRC blunders that have led to data loss.

You know I wonder why people don't just take a class action against these idiots for negligence and incompetence, as their actions have placed the personal security of millions at risk over the next 20 years.

Hartnett has admitted there have been seven other significant data losses in recent years.

He told the Treasury select committee that there had already been seven instances of data loss, classified internally as "of some significance", since the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise merged in 2005.

Why are we only hearing about these losses now?

Rather embarrassingly for Chancellor Alistair Darling, these revelations contradict his claims that the recent loss of data was an isolated incident.

Hartnett agreed with committee chairman Michael Fallon when he asked:

"If you have had seven serious security breaches in the two-and-a-half years since you were set up doesn't that indicate systemic failure?"

Among the cases of lost data, admitted to by Hartnett, was the case in Nottingham where "confidential waste" literally fell off the back of a lorry.

In another incident a lap top with the information of 15,000 Standard Life customers on was lost by the HMRC.

In May a number of letters with tax credit information on were sent to wrong addresses.

These are just the cases that HMRC are reluctantly prepared to admit to.

What else is going on that they haven't yet admitted to?

Clearly the HMRC is not fit for purpose.

I would also ask this, if HMRC is not fit for purpose and the head of HMRC has publicly admitted that there has been systemic failure, why is it that Gray (the ex head) is still being paid £200K for doing sweet FA?

A class action is what is need here. Lawyers such as these in the US would be ideal for such an action Milberg Weiss.

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The Comeback Kid

Question:

-When is a resignation not really a resignation?

Answer:

-When you are a senior member of the HMRC.

As proven by the very curious case of the recently "resigned" ex head of HM Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray. Gray "fell on his sword" (temporarily it would seem) over the fiasco of the loss of data belonging to 25 million people.

At the time, when Gray "resigned", one could have had a degree of respect for the man for actually taking such prompt and swift action to demonstrate that he took responsibility for this mother of all fuck ups.

Unfortunately any feelings of respect for him have been somewhat short lived, as he has now made a stunning comeback (after only 13 days) on a salary of £200K per annum.

Not bad for someone who put the security of 25 million people at risk for the next 20years.

Gray has taken up a position under Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary.

Here's a few more questions:

-What is his new role?

-Something important?

-Something worth £200K per annum?

Well, not exactly.

He is now involved with "special projects to develop civil service skills".

The Civil Service bullshit their way through this "jobs for the boys" appointment as follows:

"..for contractual reasons, he remains a senior civil servant. He will be leaving the civil service at the end of this year.

In the meantime, he has agreed to a request from Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to undertake a short piece of work on cross-government matters until Christmas.

When he resigned with immediate effect, Paul Gray's period of notice meant that he would be paid until the end of the year.

As a result, he could receive payment for no work, or receive payment for doing some work.

It was thought to be better in the public interest that he did some work. There is no additional cost to the public purse. He will leave the payroll on 31 December."

Now that bullshit above might be plausible to those people, such as those in the civil service, who have no experience of the real world. However, those of us who have experience of the real world can use a simple but effective accounting term to describe the above reasoning.

It is bollocks!

It would be very easy to argue, were it to be taken to court, that Gray resigned because of gross incompetence and negligence. After all, if the loss of data belonging to 25 million people isn't incompetent then what is?

Were he not to have resigned he would have been sacked.

Those lower down the pecking order in the HMRC would most certainly not have been treated so well.

Based on the above, he most certainly is not deserving of remaining under contract.

In the private sector, when senior staff are sacked (for restructuring reasons, rather than incompetence) they often re-emerge as "consultants" on a higher level of pay. The nature of the reported figures means that the headcount of full time staff will appear to have fallen, even though the reality is different.

The government, Gordon Brown and Gray's chums haven't got that nice fig leaf to hide his reappointment.

One must therefore ask, what does he know that the government and his ex boss Gordon Brown are so afraid of that they are willing to taken the flack for this most absurd public appointment?

There are some very large skeletons in the HMRC cupboard just waiting to come out.

Mark my words!

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HMRC Chairman Quits

The taxman’s policy chief Dave Hartnett has been appointed acting chairman of the department.

The appointment of Hartnett follows the sensational departure of Paul Gray over the loss of the personal data of 25 million people.

Chairman Paul Gray tendered his resignation on Tuesday immediately as the news was announced, bringing to an end his brief run at the department and disappointing advisers who had warmed to his style of management.

Source Accountancy Age

The real responsibility for this fiasco lies with Brown who set up the unmanageable HMRC in the first place.

Government Under Fire for HMRC Data Fiasco

Ministers are facing demands for answers after 25 million people's personal details were lost in Britain's worst ever data protection breach.

The "catastrophic" blunder by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) means nearly half the UK's population - including leading politicians and businessmen - are at risk of identity fraud.

Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed the staggering scale of the debacle in an emergency statement to MPs, as Paul Gray, the head of HMRC, fell on his sword.

Two compact discs containing names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, national insurance numbers and bank or building society account details of some 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families have gone missing.

The Commons emitted a collective gasp as Mr Darling explained how a junior official sent the entire child benefit database from the HMRC HQ in Newcastle to the National Audit Office in London on October 18.

In flagrant breach of the agency's procedure, the package was not even posted recorded delivery through contracted courier TNT, and never arrived at its destination.

However, senior management at HMRC were not informed of the problem until November 8, with Mr Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally brought into the loop two days later.

The officials involved apparently waited to raise the alarm because they hoped the password-protected discs would "turn up".

The Metropolitan Police is now leading the hunt for the package, while Mr Darling has ordered a probe into security procedures at HMRC and the Independent Police Complaints Commission is also investigating.

The Chancellor stressed there was no evidence that the information had fallen into criminal hands and said the public would be protected against any fraud by the Banking Code.

Source The Guardian