Letter to the Prime Minister, 23rd May 2011
Dear Prime MinisterMy wife and I were overjoyed at your stance for ‘vets’ and look forward to legislation that will give some deserved protection of those who put their heads above the parapet and been shot at whilst fighting for our country.
We suffered the arbitrary power of the state, as our case against a Revenue miscreant was ‘put down’ by officials within governmental complaint procedure. We learnt the hard way just how corrupt officialdom can be. We continue to explore it!
We saw an endless litany of public sector bumbledom occurring over many years. Delivery of honest public service has been ‘ground down’ by serial deceit, incompetence, fraud and theft, sick-note cultures, unearned bonuses and perks, along with the annual handing out of honours to the inept official.
£21billion public sector fraud is a good indication that we have more than a fair share of indolent public officials, and that the public sector is in need of cleansing.
From our first complaint (2003) we went through various procedures, such as dodgy ombudsman routines, and then I attended a fraudulent Tribunal where I faced Revenue and government lawyers ostensibly defending the corrupt acts put upon us by the Revenue miscreant etc? Why was I facing government lawyers?
We found that the integrity of the complaint procedure was laden with deceit – that the ‘iron law of institutionalised self-protective routines’ by deceitful government machinery simply forbids justice for critics of the public sector.
We asked MoJ minister Jack Straw to consider ‘open courts’ so those victims of public sector skulduggery can circumnavigate the fraudulent governmental complaint procedure. The many Ministers, MPs and departments we complained to showed a distinct lack of political commitment re public sector despots.
We suffered from what academics call ‘accountability defects’ – where defensive routines by officials and MPs has led to an entrenched meltdown of public service, this has led to the systematic fragmentation of public sector accountability.
Over 8 years we discovered how democracy and justice has been thwarted by both the authoritarian habits of politicians and the ever-growing power of the largely unsupervised and at times ungovernable government machinery.
We found that systematic failure re ‘checks and balances’ led to billions being stolen from the state by criminals, civil servants and tax evasion, while billions went down the drain through departmental neglect and gross inefficiency.
As though the enormity of public sector crime against the state was not alarming enough, morals in Westminster plumbed new depths; where instead of cleaning up what looked like immense state sponsored fraud, politicians simply joined in the ‘trough routine.’ As untold millions are disgracefully paid out to inept civil servants in unearned perks and bonuses, we ask ‘just how many Whitehall fingerprints can be found around the £21b theft and fraud?
Alarmingly, some 140,000 procurement cards issued to mandarins are costing the nation billions as they squander our money like confetti. Who issues these ‘gold plated’ cards? Was it Whitehall or the Treasury? Or do Mandarins issue them to themselves? It is no more than freewheeling abuse of public money?
The nation is called upon to take up the burden of paying abnormally high taxes simply to help feed an ever-growing public sector ogre. . It is claimed that to ‘try and improve the many indolent civil servant is usually met with ludicrous claims of ‘bullying and harassment.’ This can involve hours of demoralising self-protective investigation. The miscreants can then ‘go off sick’ with long-term ‘stress and anxiety’ – on full pay.
Governments have allowed inept and fraudulent staff to abuse the leaky ‘checks and balances’ that would normally be so vital for good government and the nations sanity.
Fraudulence by civil servants is universal; Mandarins and officials have become altogether too self-serving and undemocratic world-wide. Whitehall for instance is in danger of becoming like the all-powerful insular Greek civil service whose regime of high salaries, long holidays, sick note culture, poor procurements and other age old abuses, like retirement pensions paid out to those long since dead, has helped bankrupt Greece. Yet its influential self-serving bureaucrats are intransigent and have no intention of taking up the much-needed life-saving EU reforms.
Throughout the world many a self-seeking public official is prepared to see their nation suffer the consequences of their abuse and greed.
The scale of entrenched public sector abuse and fraud by public servants must always be published and highlighted – otherwise corruption will become the norm!
Whitehall must not be allowed to put a ‘lid’ on every piece of public sector chicanery; – it must never be forgotten just how contemptuous Whitehall can be towards ‘good governance.’
Whitehall’s culture of ‘putting a lid’ on its incompetence and fraud led the people to initially believe that Whitehall deceits and errors were something of a ‘one off.’
But as one became attuned to the constant bungling and fraud, the nation realised it had a systematic problem - the elite had been allowed to loot and abuse the system
The scale of public sector criminality is enormous, the public is aware that because of governmental lawyer’s defensive routines, many fraudsters within public sector will never be brought to justice. Public sector crooks and fraudsters will still be ‘let off the hook’ – even given ‘brownie points’ to help advance their dubious careers.
It looks as though citizens wanting justice will have to eventually take the law into their own hands. As the man said “Far more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience to governments than have ever been committed by rebellion” Gross stupidity still plagues the dysfunctional Home Office, for instance it is known that a criminal, a conman with ‘much previous’- and hardly any education that would warrant rapid promotion - easily bluffed his way to become head of an Home Office investigative unit within the sub-standard UK Border Agency? He was put in charge of untold millions re immigrant housing projects?
The conman gained ‘pecuniary advantage by deception’ whilst in office, at the same time this accomplished fraudsters led a score of UKBA investigations into suspected fraud? The Home Office has more than its fair share of Inspector Clouseaus – it can be seen that being ‘unfit for purpose’ is still a standard requirement within the HO.
Lord Sugar follows where Lord Digby Jones left off, and claims that half UKs civil servants could be made redundant if government adopted efficient private sector working practices. The idea that thousands of civil servants would lose their jobs, is no excuse for perpetuating the well organised free for all that allowed ‘jobs for life.’
Whitehall has often overruled ‘open criticism’ re its ineptitude. It has relied on forceful dilution of embarrassing NAO reports to save its neck! One cannot trust Whitehall mandarins/officials to police themselves or to ‘put things right.’
The NAO discloses a ‘swelling’ of Whitehall middle management that sends the cost to £16.4 billion a year. What are fraudulently called ‘performance related bonuses’ are costing £200m a year without much performance?
We have longed claimed that public sector corruption is endemic - so prevalent that it needs to be seen for what it is – a crime against the state. To help keep the bastards honest there is a need for a mandatory prison sentence for theft from the public purse.
Despite the Civil Service Reform programme in 1993 and the Public Reform Programme in 1998 an ‘improving’ workforce has not materialised – while enormous waste, fraud, theft and poor delivery of service is still prevalent. The Civil Service needs to move away from its culture of self-interest, and adopt a mind-set whereby honest accountability to public service becomes its first priority – without this change the nation remains throttled – being shackled to Whitehall’s insularity.
Civil servants have been allowed to ‘front’ supposed governmental audit teams like the NAO and the Audit Commission, but when they have challenged their many wayward Whitehall colleagues, the expected ‘up front’ accountability has often proved to be somewhat murky.
The Public Accounts Committee ‘sees through’ many a Whitehall scam, and rightly claims that ‘Its not acceptable for layers of management and bureaucracy to build up within the public sector, with nobody in government controlling what is happening’.
On this subject of accountability we previously suggested that bureaucrats applying for top posts be scrutinised by parliament, that these posts become short-term appointments. This would hopefully overcome the ‘insidious’ collegiate promotion of the inept official, and avoid long-term despotic officialdom.
I remain an old vet corruptly handled by public servants, an old vet helping to ‘open up’ the largely corrupt public sector structure that we all have to endure.
Yours sincerely
AW Tanner cc to all interested in corrupt public sectors.