Letter to Gordon Brown, Jack Straw, Liam Byrne, Gus O’Donnell, Parliamentary Ombudsman, July 2009
CORRUPT GOVERNMENT
From: AW Tanner a war pensioner corruptly handled by governmental complaints procedure, and the ensuing ‘hanging out to dry’ by government department - 6 years.
Now, after 6 years we discover even more ‘inner squalor’ as the appalling MPs expense abominations, fit snugly into the parliamentary cesspit that we have encountered throughout our case. Respect for politicians has never been lower!
We see a direct correlation between the carefree failure of bureaucrats to address corrupt acts against the electorate, and parliament's carefree plotting trying to hide MPs deceit and fraudulence against the public purse. They are all part of the same ‘inner squalor’ that one finds within Westminster’s cover-up culture
Corruption is endemic, governments and local governments have manufactured easy-going blind-eye allowances so tempting, that it actually encourages opportunistic ‘snout in the trough’ behaviour from dishonourable public servants and MPs. This fraudulence then lends itself to aggressive miscreants forming a self-protective cover-up culture to ensure safety for all corrupt acts, i.e. the Elisabeth Filkins scandal?
We have over the years been informing Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the Minister of Justice Rt. Hon Jack Straw, Rt. Hon Liam Byrne and Sir Gus O’Donnell and the Parliamentary Ombudsman; regarding the corrupt acts against us by the Revenue/VOA and governmental complaints procedures in general. Many we appealed to have been implicated in abusing the system. The public asks who within Westminster will fill the first 3 places in the Screwing the Public league? The public sees a danger that there will not be enough room to jail all guilty MPs.
When we first made contact with the Revenue/VOA in a form of an appeal, there was immediate blatant deceit, then having challenged their deceit we were dished up even more deceit, we began to realise this was the norm within the public sector. We learnt that virtually all government departments are incompetent, fraudulent and often corrupt. Weak Ministers lack the courage and know-how to pressurise incompetent, fraudulent or corrupt departments into becoming part of honest government.
Nowadays any unworldly political party hack, willing to espouse party spin can become a minister, then when the inevitable errors arrive they turn to the spin-laden mantra that ‘Lessons will be learnt’. Often £m more are poured into the dysfunctional department without any attempt to improve the monitoring of projects – a dead loss. Since being corruptly handled by the severely dysfunctional Revenue/VOA, we have often called for ‘probity amongst wholesale deceit.’
Unfortunately too many officials we called upon have failed the public smell test; no one was prepared to address our problem re corrupt civil servants. Even when appealing to the higher echelons we found that the normal low moral standards were strictly adhered to, especially within the corrupt government complaint procedure. This is evidence that the ‘old pals act’ is more powerful than ‘the rule of law’. It is said the rule of law is only meaningful if there is equal access to justice, that justice demands level playing fields.
After some 5 years of complaint against the dysfunctional Revenue, I faced Revenue barristers and lawyers within a Tribunal and with little pretence to justice, and found the crooked Revenue miscreant nowhere to be seen for questioning? We then suffered a dodgy Decision Notice within which, on some 10 occasions, it claimed that the crooked Revenue had been accountable in our case? The whole nation knows, that the very least thing the Revenue possesses; is accountability.
It has been correctly analysed that “officials are more likely to commit crimes in environments where such crimes appear to be tolerated”, this ‘inner squalor’ certainly applies to the Revenue/VOA and government complaint procedure in particular. It took us 16 months to get the Revenue’s fraudulent acts against us overturned; we were then told we would have to start all over again. Retaliation? This coincided with 7 weeks of radiation treatment for cancer that I had to undergo – I had no alternative but to cancel our appeal against the Revenue.
However, because I had been a front-line soldier, a war pensioner, I was outraged by the corrupt way we had been treated by government and decided to fight back, hoping in our own small way to do a little cleansing of the public sector. We decided to highlight public sector corruption, as we became aware of it. Going through complaint procedure, the Parliamentary Ombudsman produced ‘porkies’ in an attempt to cover up the Revenues serious fraudulence against us.
We asked the Ombudsman to resign, we were asked by the Ombudsman to take part in a spurious ombudsman survey – we refused. This brought more retaliation - having refused to take part in the ombudsman survey – we were surprised to be telephoned one evening and asked by an ombudsman inspired survey team, “If we would take part in a survey re ombudsman”. My wife who answered the initial call said ‘No thank you’, and put the phone down. In a decent society that would have been the end of it – but no.
To our annoyance they rang twice more at evening time – the third evening I answered the phone and asked the caller ‘why the hell she was ringing again after being told we wanted nothing to do with them on the first evening’. She asked if the Ombudsman knew that I did not want to be telephoned, I answered rather loudly, claiming that the Ombudsman did know that I did not want to take part in any spurious ombudsman surveys. The caller then asked if I would speak to her boss; at this I exploded somewhat and claimed that we were being harassed – I slammed the phone down.
This harassment led me to write to the P. Ombudsman, that in a civilised society, when one is approached in the street and asked if they would take part in a survey, and they decline, the person asking would step aside and let them go on their way. They would not be hounded for a further 3 evenings because they refused to take part? Being a critic of corrupt acts by British civil servants and officials can be very painful.
The vile corruption continued within the Tribunal, Revenue barristers and lawyers seemed somehow peeved that we had taken the Ombudsman to task, as though she was an innocent bystander in our case, she was not, she deceitfully defended the Revenues corrupt acts. This public sector ‘old pals act’ proving more powerful than ‘the rule of law’
It even becomes apparent when one reads the Tribunal account, that comment is made re our attitude to the dodgy Ombudsman – it all sounds like a public sector self- protection racket. We saw how the Ombudsman's bad influence trivialises justice. The resultant 2 year awaited Decision Notice needs to be investigated, especially paragraph 36, we have evidence to demolish its lies.
Another matter of serious importance; at one stage within the Tribunal I wanted to speak and make some points, this was refused? Although I did speak within the Tribunal, I was not allowed to quote from numerous notes that I had prepared? This corrupt Tribunal system against a war pensioner, was taking place whilst MPs were filling their boots ignoring the entire subversive stench going on around them. This Orwellian corruption of government machinery and lack of transparent justice led me to write to Prime Ministers and other senior parliamentary officials over a number of years, without any result.
One recognises that the parliamentary Ombudsman is a powerful part of this terribly dishonest forum, where even the Speaker of the House had been found, much like the Ombudsman, to be seriously despotic and wanting. The ombudsman is involved in another governmental cock-up. The Treasury once encouraged civil servants to ‘invest’ in Equitable Life, we now find the Ombudsman’s ‘Equitable’ report has gained some credo, despite criticism that her report is flawed?
In regards to her fraudulent representations in our case, one realises the Ombudsman is rather a big cog in this dishonest government complaint system, many ministers will close ranks on her behalf, just as they did with the last Speaker. But parliament is in desperate need to clean out all corruption.
We have written for some years to the Justice Minister Jack Straw, asking for ‘open courts’ so that complainants can circumnavigate the corrupt complaint procedures as run by civil servants. We have asked that our Decision Notice is investigated, we have never had a reply re the D/Notice nor the much-needed protective ‘open courts’. We once had high hopes re the MOJ, until we learnt of the MPs expenses scandal, that MOJ ministers were heavily involved in. One junior justice minister is said to have claimed more than £80,000 from the public purse then sold flats in Westminster, making over £1m. There were others ‘large snouts’ within the Ministry of Justice; some were against the publication of expenses?
We were aghast when Gordon Brown stood by the then justice minister Shahid Malik who had acted little better than a crook with his fraudulent claims. Such protection of ‘inner squalor’ within parliament says it all. We realised it was somewhat unrealistic to rely on the Fagin laden MOJ and their ‘Snouts in the trough’ ministers to investigate our claims against their public sector colleagues in the Revenue – the old pals act being more powerful than the rule of law. Gordon Brown recently said, ‘We listened, we heard, we knew something was wrong and we have dealt with it. Really? I, a former front line soldier faced the fraudulent Revenues legal team because I had complained of their corrupt acts against me?
Whist we were calling on parliament to view the corrupt acts against us, it seemed that the ‘fiddling within the rules routine’ was uppermost within the Ministry of Justice, that the fiddling was obviously not leaving enough time to investigate electorates claims against corrupt civil servants. The Ministry of Justice for some 12 months pushed our letters on to the Treasury – the Treasury never answered? The MOJ then sent our complaints re corrupt civil servants onto the Cabinet Office.
We were answered by the Cabinet Office’s Propriety & Ethics team, surely a giant misnomer. They were dismissive of our claims re corrupt acts by civil servants and informed us with severest of incompetence that we should apply for help to the dodgy Parliamentary Ombudsman, the very despot who had been subjecting us to evening phone calls? So much for the Cabinet Office’s Propriety & Ethics team where ethical standards are non-existent.
Feb 2009 saw us writing to Sir Gus O’Donnell re Public Sector Corruption and the fraudulence of civil service, such was our long-time fruitless struggle with bureaucracy that we saw fit to quote him from Cromwell; “Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You who were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance”. This short excerpt really says it all about the present day sleaze and corruption of parliament.
Gus O’Donnell, who has authority over civil servants, once said that if you cut a civil servant in half, you would find running through him like a stick of rock; Honesty, Objectivity, Integrity and Impartiality? This appalling conveyor belt of deceitful platitudes simply puts spin and party lies before truth. Gus is somewhat out of touch when it comes to public sector corruption – one must assume he does not believe corrupt civil servants exist? Within the Ministry of Defence corrupt civil servants have trousered untold millions. There is the fraudulent formation of Quinetiq, where even more millions were made. That Quinetic is now the government’s largest contractor needs investigating. This MOD civil servant abomination has to be investigated in relationship to ‘kickbacks’ and the continuing procurement of inferior arms and equipment that affect the safety of our troops? Gus should give this abomination a lot more thought.
If Sir Gus wants to look, he will see that the MOD’s ‘stick of rock’ has Severe Incompetence, Corruption and Treachery running right through it. As an old soldier, I am entitled to ask the obvious question, “how many deaths have been cause by this historic purchasing by the MOD of inferior equipment?”
It would appear that the MOD should be an obvious target for cleansing. The fact that it has been allowed to purchase inferior arms over many years is an indictment of all governments; its procurement disabilities have a direct bearing on the well being of our armed forces. The ‘Chinook’ fiasco is the procurement scandal of all time, that because of faults, helicopters were stored in air-conditioned hangers for 7 years, the subsequent enormous repair costs are an indictment of all unscrutinised government departments! Such a corrupt department deserves much more than a party hack politician at its head – it needs a man of iron will, with the worldly ability to clean up this decrepit abnormality that constantly fails our troops.
The latest MOD contempt; soldiers who risked their lives, some paying a terrible cost in physical and mental torture are being threatened with ‘covert surveillance’ re their claims by MOD policing. Benefit cheats are not threatened as much. Ministers need to remember that it’s obvious to the electorate that this MOD barbaric act is only mirroring the Executives contempt for the electorate in general.
More about fraudulent acts by Gus’s ‘stick of rock’ standards re civil servants! We mentioned to him about the astoundingly corrupt service handed out by Rural Payments Agency’s civil servants to needy farmers? This RPA case was described as the most grotesque example of maladministration of any government. RPA civil servants showed a wicked attitude to needy farmers? It would appear that the ‘honest objectivity’ by civil servants pays off in mysterious manipulative ways. There have been miraculous public sector ‘glitches’ that give so much financial benefit to lucky civil servants. Tax Inspectors for instance shared some £8m over three years because of a ‘glitch’? While it is now revealed in June 2009 that some £17billion tax has not reached the countries coffers?
In 2007 this wayward Revenue wrote off £336million, these severe indolent incompetent civil servants claimed the debtors had vanished? While millions of us pay the wrong amount of tax because of the ‘unfit for purpose’ Revenue dept. The Inland Revenue, we know to our cost is really a cesspool of error and deceit; there is little evidence of Honesty, Objectivity, Integrity or Impartiality or even the ‘rule of law’ within the Revenue!
There was further financial benefit to lucky civil servants, numerous long-term public sector ‘glitches’ miraculously all came together and plopped themselves down into the middle of the already bloated civil servants gold pension pot. The constantly incompetent Revenue were blamed for failing to take responsibility - one can see within our Decision Notice that the Revenue are rather short on accountability. The more alert public is now asking ‘just how many more advantageous financial glitches, advantageous to civil servants are in the pipe-line?’
So much for Gus’s propaganda statement re honest civil servants, we ask again how come the words ‘deceit’ ‘collusion’ and ‘corruption’ failed to get a mention in his civil servant ‘stick of rock’ analogy. It’s fairly obvious from all the allowed chicanery within the public sector that the first priority of the Cabinet Office is to deceive the public into believing that, despite all the decrepit lies and deceit, Whitehall democracy is in good working order! The Ministry of Justice sent our case to the Cabinet Office, however, not getting a reply from them, we wrote to Liam Byrne in March 09, hoping he might show some interest in our being corruptly handled by civil servants.
But once we learnt he had passed the red face test of claiming enormous expenses of some £478,000 without blushing, and is said to have forced the Fees Office to stump up money after it had refused his demands. Then when the expense scandal broke, he hurriedly paid the money back. We then realised Liam was hardly a shining beacon of morality and would not be the man to investigating the corrupt acts against us. Here is another example of us calling for probity amongst wholesale deceit!
Ministers are ever ready to talk up government effort but are more than capable of playing down immigration and crime figures etc When Liam Byrne was being questioned in a Home Affairs committee he was accused of failing to give straight answers re immigration! Immigration happens to be of the uppermost concern to the whole nation – politicians don’t see this calamity as being important – it is dismissed with spin and double talk.
Our case having been sent to the Cabinet Office by the MOJ, we therefore hoped for some enlightenment, but only found the usual government evasions. So we indicated to Byrne, that we had often propounded what the Reform think-tank had now claimed, that the civil service was ‘unfit for purpose’ that it needed ‘root and branch changes’ to its structure! The Cabinet Office, however, is incapable of doing such cleansing.
We stated that so much damage has been done by the public sector, that the vision of a largely incompetent fraudulent Westminster and civil service is now a permanent fixture in the public’s mind. We have tried to disclose how all the people we had written to re our case were somehow implicated in abusing the system. Too busy to listen to corrupt acts committed against the electorate? We now realise that the officials we appealed to, have been sullied by the abuse of parliament. They would not have been morally fit enough to investigate the corrupt acts by civil servants and dodgy ombudsman in our case.
One finds that the entrenched fraud, the lying, the cheating, the spin, within the public sector shows a depth of ‘inner squalor’ giving strong indication that the quality of MPs needs to improve – that the system of party hack politics is undemocratic and dangerous to our society. Its not enough to hear calls from ‘caught out cheats’ that they will pay back and behave in future. Those imprisoned should forfeit all pensions.
So the nation worries that the calling for the eradication of corruption within the public sector is a somewhat forlorn exercise, that such calls are still met with entrenched ‘old pals act’ deceit that remain more powerful than the ‘rule of law’.
AW & I Tanner Copies to D Cameron Nick Clegg Media MPs Committees, House of Lords Universities and Student Unions etc