Letter to Rt Hon Liam Byrne, 20th March 2009
Dear Minister
We have received another disappointing letter (9/3/09) from the Cabinet Office, again dismissive in regard to the civil service fraudulence in our case. There has been no concern shown by the Cabinet Office re the corrupt acts handed out to us.
6 months ago the MOJ sent our case to the CO. The latest of the Cabinet Office evasions is to send us the Capability Review of HM Revenue & Customs. It also mentions that some 17 departments are taking action to address the severe internal weaknesses identified.
We would point out that the enormity of such a cleansing operation within the public sector, is quite beyond the wit or will of civil servants or Cabinet Office?
However, there are more honest appraisals taking place that the public will recognise as having merit, being devoid of smoke screen deceits; see the Reform Report! One knowledgeable critic claims the Civil Services own ‘Capability Revues’ have revealed weaknesses of ‘critical proportions’ within Whitehall. We are ourselves aware that civil service staff can move from cock-up to balls-up with Machiavellian aplomb, ever ready for the next unashamed ‘gaffe’! The REFORM think-tank report reiterates much public disquiet, and claims the Civil Service “is not fit for purpose” …that it is in need of “root-and-branch changes” to its structure and culture. After 6 years of struggle we have found this to be so! So much damage has been done by the public sector, that the vision of a largely incompetent fraudulent civil service is now a permanent fixture in the public’s mind!
To paraphrase Muggeridge; ‘If engineers built cities in the way civil servants manage their departments, then a single woodpecker could destroy civilisation’. One remembers the gross stupidity where civil servants paid the wrong ‘Newcastle’ over £2.5m, just another example of continuing debilitating Whitehall ‘inner squalor’. As a former soldier I am sickened that MOD civil servants made millions by the murky formation of Qinetiq. That Qinetiq is now MOD’s biggest customer is enough to make every soldier shudder! The whole nation knows that the MOD has long suffered from procurement disabilities, where crooks have trousoured millions – while troops have suffered poor equipment! Such a lack of procurement integrity by the MOD has cost lives; many feel that this whole MOD sewage package is tantamount to corruption against the state, certainly against front-line troops.
Parliament just looks on at this MOD morass, quite clueless as to what to do! Accountability and honest endeavour do not gel within the public sector. History tells us that civil servants are incapable of self-regulation!
In these worrying times enormous unearned bonuses paid to civil servants becomes painful. The Cabinet Office shows no concern that the electorate is becoming seriously annoyed at the lackadaisical attitude taken by many public sector workers.
Many of the electorate feeling the pinch - are in no mood to suffer continuous public sector abuse from the largely incompetent, yet financially secure over-staffed civil service!
From the hard-up unemployed comes anger and criticism at the cosy employment and pension conditions enjoyed by many within the public sector, all at taxpayers expense.
We hope these honest critics of civil servants will not end up facing governmental gravy train barristers and lawyers as I did. Within the Tribunal (2008), I complained that instead of coming face to face with the Revenue miscreant and her executive; I had to face a panzer division of government lawyers, who stood in for the miscreant and her Revenue/VOA executive.
One gets a sense of justice crumbling away with the aid of concerted fraudulence; the unification of legalised public sector sleaze.
Yours sincerely
AW & I Tanner cc PM, MoJ, MPs, Committees, Media, Reform etc Enc.; A short account of early fraud in our case!