My thanks to a loyal reader who advised me of this rather interesting development concerning certain staff within HMRC setting up an "insider network".
According to Citywire (which itself uses the Daily Mail as a source) the network of 324 HMRC staff members (called "Dissent") will expose the corruption and ineptitude of the department.
Dissent is quoted:
"We wish to speak out against the bad practice and double standards that operate in HMRC. We wish for a fair tax system that does not reward the wealthy elite and big business.
We have amassed a comprehensive database of personal information on staff members, including expenses, benefits [and] conflicts of interest."
The Mail quotes a spokesman for HMRC, who said that she was aware of Dissent:
"HMRC is proud to be an open organisation which welcomes and encourages the views of all our staff. ‘Anonymous and unconstructive letters are therefore completely unnecessary and irrelevant.
We have well defined procedures for staff to report any genuine grievances."
In the event that there are members of Dissent who read this site, please feel to make contact with me privately.
It will be interesting to see where this all leads.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Sounds like an HMRC disinformation exercise lulling us into thinking someone, somewhere is on the case...
ReplyDelete...Or to draw the unwary out into the open. The Department still has its job-cuts targets to meet, and anything that goes some way to enabling that will be used.
ReplyDeleteThat having been said, such a fifth column is clearly overdue in an organisation where 'Hotseat' questions either go unanswered, are answered in the most anodyne way possible (complete with MBA-speak), or where the answer scarcely relates to the subject of the question at all.
Tend to agree with 15:55. If anyone inside HMRC was spilling or planning to spill the beans then I doubt they would be shouting about it in such a manner.
ReplyDeletePS. Always beware of any organisations using the Daily Heil as a source. Next thing you know, they'll be assuring us that tax returns cause cancer, and that Jeremy Clarkson is set to takeover from Hartnett.
ReplyDeleteDo they have a logo like Anonymous?
ReplyDeleteIs it Hector the inspector with a percentage symbol on his face?
"HMRC is proud to be an open organisation which welcomes and encourages the views of all our staff. ‘Anonymous and unconstructive letters are therefore completely unnecessary and irrelevant."
ReplyDeleteWhat absolute nonsense - no wonder the Department is in a mess if this is the standard they work to. Just read it again - it is plainly a ridiculous stance.
For example;
Dear Board
One of my team has created 99 false tax payer records and is issuing repayments that they are then collecting themselves.
Signed anon hmrc Liverpool
Sorry we can't do anything because this is anonymous and therefore unhelpful and irrelevant.
It's not exactly Sherlock Holmes is it.
Do they so not want to hear just how corrupt they are that they openly refuse anonymous complaints?
Has it come down to this? If so they must have something to hide.
5 December 2011 21:27
ReplyDeleteYes.
I doubt this is true purely because of the DM link. Apart from anything else if anyone dared to share 'a comprehensive database of personal information on staff members, including expenses, benefits [and] conflicts of interest' HMRC would have them publicly flogged and fed to the DM as a traitor or a threat to the safety of the country who is sharing TP information. Like (5 December 2011 17:46) I think it is a ploy to check there is no such insubordination in the ranks, given Jack's behaviour of late no wonder they are paranoid.
ReplyDelete05/12@17:46 here again.
ReplyDeleteI came across an absolute beaut of a Hotseat response today where the 'answer' given by the managementbot in question was nothing more than a cut-and-paste of a quotation in the question itself.
@6 December 2011 01:40
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree.
The way expenses details are gathered it would be difficult except someone who isn't already part of the management chain to gain access.
I believe HMRC (the employer) has a dispensation with HMRC (the tax office), that covers travel and subsistence because the payments are within the rates defined as not attracting a taxable benefit. So the only things that would attract a P11d are cars and 'necessary relocation', both of which are few and far between.
Jacks lunches would not show up on his own P11d but may show up as necessary entertainment expenses somewhere in Vodagoldbarclayhbosphonesucks accounts.
Which leaves conflicts of interest..... Most members of staff in lower grades are afraid of their own shadow, so will have passed something to management about anything that could be misconstrued. It's difficult to know what a conflict of interest is without knowing what this groups criteria is.