HMRC Grips The Issue - Don't Believe The Hype!

A spokesman for HMRC is quoted by International Adviser, talking about the closure of HMRC offices and HMRC's "improved" performance:

“We recognise our customer service has not been good enough recently and apologise to all those who have found it difficult to talk to us. 

We have gripped this issue and recruited around 3,000 new staff in our customer teams, also moving an extra 900 HMRC people on to customer correspondence in recent months.

These improvements have started to make a difference. This month, we have answered more than 80% of calls, and average queue times are now around 10 minutes.”

Well that's all very fine and dandy, except that it's bollocks.

The reality is, as a loyal reader pointed out to me, that of course performance has improved in November that's because November and December are quiet months.

Wait until January, then we will see how HMRC copes!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

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Dorothy Brown - Building Our Future

My thanks to a loyal reader who forwarded me the following message sent to HMRC staff from Dorothy Brown Interim Chief People Officer (oddly enough in 2013 she was Chief People Officer, why now is she only "Interim"?).

Her message contains one minor glitch, in the second paragraph she doesn't use a capital "F" in the "Building our Future" phrase.

That's definitely off message!
  
"Personal Tax Operations
Building our Future in PT Operations – the next steps
17 July 2014

Now that the first wave of Building our Future events has taken place in PT Operations I wanted to write and give you an update on what’s happening next with all the feedback you’ve given us.

Building our future, HMRC’s national conversation about the future of our department has been taking place in PT Operations for nearly six weeks now. You’ll remember that because July is the busiest time of the year for our helplines I asked for the roll-out of these events to be brought forward so that as many people as possible were able to attend an event before the end of June. So far we’ve run over 60 sessions for around 7,000 of our people. This is a great achievement and everyone else will have an opportunity to attend an event by the mid-August.

The first thing I want to say is a huge thank you to everyone for bringing such lively enthusiasm, passion and debate to the conversation. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a number of events and your commitment and dedication to do the best for our customers and your desire to be involved in the way we transform HMRC really shone through.

The feedback from the events has been phenomenal – and a number of similar issues keep coming-up again and again. You are rightly interested in what a move to regional centres will mean, how new digital tools will impact on our work, and about career opportunities, training and communications.

While Building our Future is a going to be an ongoing conversation, I don’t want us to delay in addressing the areas when we can do something now:

Training – has been a big issue at every single event and you’ve told us that there should be a better balance between online learning and face-to-face training when changes are introduced.

I want us to work with you to look at how future learning is managed. As a first step, and in response to your concerns, training to support the introduction of digitised mail will now be delivered face-to-face instead of using e-learning.

IT and security – has been another major talking point and you’ve expressed concerns that our systems aren’t fit for purpose. Our people in Dundee told me about some real issues that were affecting their work. To try and address these problems I have arranged for a team from the Chief Digital and Information Officer’s (CDIO) area to go and spend some time with our front-line staff to see the problems caused by unreliable IT kit.

Office environment – you’ve told us that the condition and cleanliness of your offices often leaves a lot to be desired. In particular colleagues in Manchester expressed real concerns about the maintenance of their building. I have directly approached the Director of Estates and Support Services (ESS) about fixing these problems and I’m pleased to report that a new cleaning programme in Manchester has now been implemented.

These might seem like small issues, but I want you to know that we are committed to addressing immediate issues where we can. We are collating all of the written feedback from your sessions and will analyse this in detail.

The first phase of Building our Future is nearly complete, and a second wave of events will start in October. Many of you have told me that you are still reserving judgement and will be waiting to see what happens next. I want you to know that I will be striving to keep up the momentum and to demonstrate our commitment to this two-way conversation. I’m meeting with my senior leadership team on 11 August to look at more of your feedback and to discuss the next steps. Following this meeting you can expect to see regular communication from us on the progress we are making with Building our Future in PT Operations.

Dorothy"

Given that she is now only "Interim", HMRC staff may choose to take what she says with a pinch of salt.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

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What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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HMRC's "C" Word

The e petition asking HMRC stop stop using the "C" word and return to calling taxpayers ermm taxpayers, has prompted Tax Journal to ask HMRC if they will heed the request.

In a word, no.

HMRC have no intention of abandoning the "C" word; even though taxpayers have no choice, it winds everyone up and everyone pays tax in some shape or form (eg income tax, VAT etc etc).

Here is HMRC's response in full:

"Tax Journal: Does HMRC accept that use of the term ‘customer’ is not appropriate?

HMRC: Language is important. We use the term ‘customer’ to underpin our thinking about how we should relate to the millions of people we serve. The word ‘customer’ invites a different provider orientation, with its implication of choice. We know that it is this that irritates our critics but it is exactly this point that needs to be thought about when defining how we connect with people. 

We must ask ourselves: ‘If this person had a choice would they come back to us?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then we need to address that. We do not want to be the kind of organization that takes people for granted because we can. We think it is inevitable that when you think of someone who comes to you through choice and has to be encouraged back through the quality of service they experience even when this is not literally the case this will feed through into the quality of service you provide. 

A customer has to be treated exceptionally well and that is what we aspire to. We want to think of the millions of people we serve as deserving of the same consideration and attention that those who use commercial services receive. So no the use of ‘customer’ is not inappropriate.

Tax Journal: Does HMRC intend to continue to use the term?

HMRC: We do.

Tax Journal: Are there any plans to stop using the term, and if so when will the change take place and what terms will be used instead?

HMRC: We think using the term ‘customer’ underlines the fact that the people we serve are entitled to be treated as though they could receive the services they get from us elsewhere. It is right that we have the mind-set of an organization faced with tough competition for the people we deliver our services to.

Tax Journal: Do you have any comment on Mike Truman’s article or the campaign?

HMRC: We always welcome robust debate. The views that Mike’s campaign will generate (and we think there will be many) will contribute to an interesting and important conversation – one to which we are likely to contribute. We know that not everyone likes our use of the term ‘customer’ and we will certainly listen to the views of our critics but we believe the term plays an important part in helping us to take forward our strategy of putting people at the heart of everything we do."

Tax does have to be taxing.

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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I Am Not A Customer, I Am A Taxpayer

As loyal readers are well aware, nothing irks HMRC staff and non HMRC alike more than the use of the word "customer" to describe the taxpayer.

Customers have a choice about where they buy their goods and services, taxpayers do not!

It is therefore refreshing to see a well reasoned critique that nails the lies behind the official HMRC propaganda, that would have us believe that the "C" word is being used for all the "right" reasons. Mike Truman writes on Taxation:

"That they haven’t already done so, and persist in calling us customers, suggests that something else is behind the use of the term.

While it is only recently that HMRC have explicitly defended it on the basis that it encourages officers to think of ‘customer service’, the use of such management-speak has been rampant for some time in the department’s strategy documents.

Taxpayers are split into ‘customer streams’, the levels of ‘customer service’ are analysed and reported on, and software developers look at ‘customer journeys’ through HMRC’s online services... I’m sorry, their ‘online offering’...

The justification for this was that it was a much-needed change in approach for HMRC staff, and would result in a significantly better level of service for taxpayers and claimants.

It clearly hasn’t, though that may be due in large part to the fact that the department is trying to make do with far fewer staff. However, there is also a fundamental flaw in the concept.

HMRC seem to have bought the line from business that what they want to do is provide great service to their customers.

Actually what business wants to do is to make profit from its customers. That involves giving the customers who pay the most the best levels of service, while trying to automate the process for lower-value customers, thus stripping out costs.

It is no surprise that in a ‘customer-centric’ HMRC, the one area getting rave reviews is the Large Business Service, with the High Net Worth Unit beginning to garner grudging praise as well.
Nor is it any surprise that the average taxpayers (and their advisers) get a process-driven level of service from call centres – they simply are not worth putting more resources into because they don’t produce as much revenue.

What businesses also want to do is to maximise the amount of money they get from each customer. Is this why HMRC started talking a while ago about getting the ‘maximum’ amount of tax, rather than the ‘right’ amount of tax?

Because, for all that Andrew Tyrie MP cleverly finessed the issue at the CTA address by saying that the right amount of tax was the maximum amount of tax, the two concepts are fundamentally different."

He goes on to recommend that people sign up to a petition on the government epetition site that calls for the "C" word to be abolished wrt HMRC:

"HM Revenue & Customs has the policy of calling Tax Payers Customers. If tax payers were in fact Customers they could shop elsewhere when they receive a poor level of Service from HMRC."

Sign the petition here:

To stop HM Revenue & Customs calling Taxpayers Customers

Tax does have to be taxing.

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TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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HMRC Bullshit

Accountancy Age reports that HMRC have reduced their target for checking business records down from 50,000 to 20,000.

However, for reasons best known to HMRC, they are describing this reduced target as an "extension" of the scheme.

For good measure they also claim that the record checks are in the businesses best interests:

HMRC's director of local compliance, Richard Summersgill, said:

"Good record-keeping helps businesses pay the right amount of tax at the right time, thereby potentially avoiding interest and penalties.

Adequate records give businesses a clear idea of their trading position and profitability, allowing them to make business decisions and adjustments to ensure survival and success. 

And where a check has shown a business keeps adequate records, it gives HMRC a greater degree of assurance as to the likely accuracy of its tax returns."

Bullshit from start to finish!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

The Light Touch

The Telegraph reports that HMRC is to reform its "drawn out and costly" inspection procedures.

HMRC now intends to "throw the book at" firms suspected of avoiding (not that avoidance is illegal) multiple taxes, while treating honest traders with a light touch.

Should not honest traders have been treated "lightly" anyway?

It seems that HMRC has recognised that it is now the "modus operandi" for multiple inspectors would make a compliance visits in consecutive months.

Hardly an effective use of scarce resources, nor does it help the hard pressed business focus on earning money to pay its taxes.

HMRC are quoted:

"We want to get off the back of honest businesses."

As such a new inspection process will be tested for six months from June. If successful, it will be rolled out nationally from January.

David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary, mastering in the bleeding obvious and using the "C" word is also quoted:

"We know that agents, individuals and businesses find some of HMRC's current compliance practices drawn out and costly.

A single compliance process could help HMRC improve the customer experience and reduce costs."

"Innocent, until proven guilty" is a basic principle of English law, unless you are under the gimlet eye of HMRC.

As to whether the new inspection process actually improves things for the taxpayer, remains to be seen. Please let me know your experiences (good and bad) of the new process.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Thuggish Bailiffs III - HMRC Flouts Agreements

It seems that "time to pay" agreements made by taxpayers with HMRC regarding tax debts are not always honoured by HMRC.

The FT reports that business owners who have thought that they have made a "time to pay" agreement with HMRC, have been less than pleased to receive letters from third party debt collection agencies threatening them with confiscation of their assets.

These letters are being sent to businesses who have not breached the repayment terms agreed with HMRC.

The letters often include phrases such as "our records suggest that you have ignored our previous requests" and "if you do not comply with our request we have to assume you are unwilling to pay and will take distraint action which may involve taking your assets".

However, HMRC are of the view that there is no problem. They are quoted by the FT:

"Each time-to-pay arrangement exists for a specific debt or debts, so debts not covered by the arrangement may be sent to a debt collection agency (DCA).

If, exceptionally, a customer believes that a debt included in an arrangement has been referred to a DCA, it should contact us immediately."

So that's alright then, simply contact HMRC immediately and the problem will be resolved!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

The Champions

My thanks to a loyal reader who wrote to me in connection with yesterday's article about Yokel Bear being reduced to tears by HMRC.

"Please pass my sympathies to Yokel Bear and his call centre woes.

I am confident that it is staff sickness that is the underlying cause of the staff attitude, but this should soon be resolved when with the new initiative heralded in HMRC’s 2009-10 Annual Accounts are fully implemented. I quote:

'An Engagement Champions Steering Group has been established, chaired by a member of the Executive Committee. This uses a comprehensive engagement dashboard to identify areas of good practice with the potential to increase levels of engagement across lines of business'.

Page 10 para 6.27

I do hope this reassures and heartens Mr Bear.

Much joy to your excellent site, which is surreptitiously followed by many senior thinking Revenue staff at home (office viewing is a capital offence), and by IR pensioners such as myself.

I am Sir your obedient servant...

Whenever I see the words "dashboard", "champions" and "engagement" in a management speak piece of BS I instinctively reach for my sickbag.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Taxing The Dead

There are two certainties in life, death and taxes.

The Treasury has, over the last 30 years, managed to combine the two via imposing the iniquitous IHT. However, until now, bereaved families have been at least given some time to pay it with penalties for late payment (six months after death) never going beyond base rate.

Sadly, since the government has managed to bankrupt the country it is now desperate for every penny that it can raise in order to pay its own wage bill. As such, HMRC will be increasing the rate it charges on IHT late payments to 3% (2.5% above base).

Ironically, where there is a tax overpayment HMRC will only pay 1% below base rate, with a floor of 0.5% (ie 0.5% at current base rate).

HMRC say:

"Interest is not a penalty but compensation for tax paid late.

We are streamlining the rates charged and paid for interest to simplify and make things fairer for customers.

This has been subject to extensive consultation over the last 18 months and has been largely welcomed by customer groups and their representatives.

The alignment of rates that will take place in September will mean that all tax paid late is subject to interest at the same rate, so ensuring all taxpayers are treated equally.

And in the interest of fairness we will also be introducing a repayment interest floor, to ensure that any taxpayer overpaying tax will receive interest."

- How is it fair to penalise the bereaved in this manner?

- How is it fair to charge 3% for late payments, but only pay 0.5% when tax has been overpaid?

- How can anyone seriously describe taxpayers as "customers"?

- How did HMRC manage to issue such a bullshit statement whilst keeping a straight face?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

From Bad To Worse - The Sweet Smell of Bullshit

Congratulations to those running HMRC, for proving that they can make a bad situation worse!

It seems that security breaches at HMRC have risen dramatically since the data discs fiasco.

How the fark can that be?

HMRC and its political masters had promised to improve security, after last year's spectacular loss of 25 child benefit records. However, as we all know, the promises of politicians and bureaucrats are worse than worthless.

HMRC have clocked up a stunning ten security breaches a day since October last year, compared to eight per day the previous year.

The losses include physical theft of computers containing information about members of the public, and mobile phones with private numbers stored in them.

Since October 2007 there have been 1,993 incidents. On the assumption that this "stellar" performance continues, there will be more than 2,700 breaches by this October.

That's an increase of 28%!

Well done lads!

Those of you who are a tad worried about this need have no fear, Treasury Minister Jane Kennedy has an excuse:

"This high level of reporting reflects the increased awareness of staff following the child benefit data loss in October 2007."

Read that again, just to make sure that you fully understand what this daft woman just said.

She is implying that before the theft, HMRC staff hadn't got the wit/brains or practical knowledge to be able to recognise when something (eg a pc or mobile phone) had been stolen; or if they did recognise that something had been stolen, they hadn't the wit/brains or common sense to report the theft.

If it looks like bullshit and smells like bullshit, then the chances are it is bullshit!

I would like to hear what the members of staff of HMRC think about her "excuse", and the real reason that security breaches have increased.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

The Sweet Smell of Bullshit - Hardware Fault

Those of you who got stuck in the IT "snafu" with HMRC's online filing system, when trying to file your tax returns online on 31 January this year, may be interested to know what the cause of the systems crash was.

Contrary to earlier stories spread by Dave Hartnett that the crash was down to hacking and other nefarious issues, the real cause is far more mundane.

It was a hardware fault that caused 15,000 people to be unable to file their tax returns.

Quite what the nature of the hardware fault was remains a mystery, as HMRC has not disclosed the exact nature of the fault.

Which is rather odd really, given the fact that they work for us. Don't the taxpayers have the right to know what the problem is, given that we are paying for this "service"?

Is "service" a wee bit of an exagerration?

Tim Burr, National Audit Office Comptroller wrote in his report on HMRC's 2007 to 2008 accounts:

"The department secured assurances from its supplier that the online service could be supported at the expected volumes at the peak period.

However, on the day the hardware problem meant that the level of customer attempts to use the online service could not be supported."

Capgemini supplies IT to HMRC under the "popular" with HMRC's staff Aspire contract, which allegedly aims to overhaul technology and reduce running costs.

HMRC and Capgemini are quoted in Computerworld UK:

"The technical issues were caused by a hardware problem which was triggered by a spike in logins. Our systems had been thoroughly capacity tested but this hardware problem meant that we did not manage the January 31 peak as well as we would have liked."

Bollocks!

The "spike" was puny in terms of professional well run IT systems. Had they really tested it properly, and designed it well, this would not have happened.

Complete Bullshit!

The hardware was replaced in February.

Why did "nearly man" Hartnett tell the world that the crash was down to hackers, given that the real reason must have been known at the time?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Tripping With HMRC

I was heartened and amused when I first read the headline about HMRC taking trips, I naively thought that there exists an element within HMRC that is a little bit rebellious and free spirited.

However, I was brought back to earth speedily with a bump when I realised that this story was in fact about travel expenses.

Ho hum!

Anyhoo, it seems that HMRC managed to run up a bill last year (at our expense) of more than £1.7M on trips abroad.

£1,751,257 was spent on flights, accommodation, and meals for overseas visits during the 2007/08 financial year. However, the actual spend will be significantly higher because HMRC (and this bit is the real killer) claims that it could not supply details of hotel bills for the first three months.

Funny how the humble taxpayer, when asked to justify expense write offs etc, is expected to have every single invoice and bill to hand though isn't it?

Treasury Minister Jane Kennedy also said that facts on where officials travelled could not be disclosed, for "policy and operational reasons".

Bullshit!

Similar details have been released previously.

One rule for HMRC, another for the taxpayer!

Covert footage of HMRC on a recent trip to Amsterdam



Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

The Sweet Smell of Bullshit

I am not alone in thinking that the sudden and "hush hush" (hush hush until it leaked) departure of Stuart Cruickshank (CFO of HMRC) stinks.

Martin Waller of The Times does not think the HMRC version of events holds any water at all.

"...HMRC's version of events is increasingly leaking water. Stuart Cruickshank, the Revenue claims, was on a 'standard Civil Service fixed-term appointment contract' and was always expected to leave. After 15 months? An odd fixed term....

HMRC is sticking to its fiction in the light off the above, but it simply doesn't hold up."

-Why has Cruickshank gone after such a short period in office?

-Has he been paid off?

Would someone on the inside of HMRC care to drop me a line with the real story here please?

I guarantee your anonymity.

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

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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