Letter to Sir Gus O’Donnell, 6th March 2009
Dear Sir Gus O’Donnell
The Ministry of Justice sent our case to the Cabinet Office, indicating it was suitable for the Civil Service Commission however, our case concerning corrupt acts by civil servants has been sidelined. We are essentially interested in ‘open courts’ whereby dishonest civil servants, acting deceitfully as ‘judge and jury’ within governmental complaint procedures might be bye-passed!
The layers of historical incompetence and fraudulent civil servants have long been under pressure to reform with little success. Many Prime Ministers have seen the need to clean up the public sector. Harold Wilson, Heath, Thatcher all tried and demanded efficiency with proper financial accountability. John Major tried to give the depressed electorate a say in cleaning up civil servants by promising a Citizens Charter, while Tony Blair talked of modernisation, accountability, and the much needed ‘improving delivery of projects’.
All the above mentioned Prime Ministers failed to improve the civil service enough to make it an integral part of capable government, the delivery of projects on time being largely beyond public sector staff, hence consultants! Michael Hesseltine was appalled by the inefficiency found within the MOD!
Many are of the opinion that the Civil Service Commission is not capable of overseeing continuous misconduct and fraud etc that occurs within the civil service. The CO shows absolutely no inclination of listening to the woes from members of the electorate who have been corruptly handled by civil servants. That civil service management is only interested in giving obscene cover-up protection to its numerous miscreant staff.
The Immigration Visa Scandal showed the civil service as the true epi-centre of entrenched public sector incompetence. Where fraud, forged documents, false papers and attempts to raise these corrupt acts through the civil service ‘system’ failed. Here was a case of ‘subversive’ wrongdoing where senior civil servants failed to act against criminal activity – where blatant hand-over-fist skulduggery took advantage of entrenched laxity within the civil service.
Although Civil Service Code rules were repeatedly breached, no action had been taken to discipline those who failed to report or those who tolerated the scam? A noble whistleblower however, was the only one that felt disciplinary action. There is a cultural reluctance to act against crooked civil servants!
No one shall stand up and tell the truth within the public sector - no civil servant shall speak out! Hence the acute need for parliamentary control over the frenetic cover-up culture that is designed to hide every cock-up, and every fraudulent act
Had it not been for the whistleblower these degenerate corrupting civil service acts re forged documents, false papers etc would have been securely tucked away - out of sight by homely self-protective officials blind to national security. We ourselves have suffered from this atrocious cover-up mentality over some 6 years? We have long fought civil service abuse and neglect, and as honest citizens suffered subversive jackbooting for our efforts. We have found that the civil service is largely a truth avoidance secretive society.
This visa scandal showed the historic entrenched incompetent culture that pervades the civil service to this day! The out of touch, top management remained stumm for some 10 days and failed to inform their Minister as to what had happened, leaving Ministers somewhat out on a limb.
We think the Minister of Justice the Rt Hon Jack Straw is being disingenuous in sending our case to the Cabinet Office. He must know that our case will be ‘hung out to dry’ sent to other cover-up bodies who specialise in demolishing accusations against civil servants.
Such abuse of power within the public sector leads to erosion of public confidence in elected government and democracy. The CO’s covering up for continuing errors and extreme subversive behaviour is detrimental to good government, it creates a fifth column of active miscreants,
It makes the electorate worried that the cancerous pockets within the civil service are not being attended to, that this public sector ineptitude is indicative of the serious lack of accountability within Whitehall bureaucracy.
Ministers hand down important projects like the ‘Removal of foreign criminals’ to civil servants in the hope for quick action, only to find that dithering, bungling, lack of interest or sheer incompetence have held up delivery or worse - criminals are let free? Also despite great enthusiasm from MPs, many projects, once handed over to civil servants seem to lose the will to live.
Many Ministers call in consultants in the naïve expectations that the consultant’s advice, instructions, improvements are going to be taken-up by civil servants. Some civil servants will be too incompetent; some might have a vested interest in seeing that the ‘consultancy’ is not successful - it will mean some hard work!
The electorate is waking up to this cancerous deceit that can drag down and hold back the effort of elected government. Ministers are paid to run policy; civil servants are paid to manage – yet we now have incredible numbers of consultants paid to do both jobs? Maybe it’s a good time to get rid of reluctant civil servants?
We have written to you about the barbaric handling of needy farmers by DEFRA staff who’s severe mismanagement of EU handouts ended up costing the nation millions – these uncaring civil servants were persistent in error? This internal staff squalor within DEFRA is rife!
The Chief Surveillance Commissioner was scathing of DEFRA; stating his findings from just one inspection made “lamentable reading”; that his recommendations were “exceptional in number and in seriousness from any (other) organisation inspected by my office”. His findings back up the electorates fear of ever more '‘duff” civil servants! The Commissioner also claimed DEFRA staff suffered from a severe lack of know-how and proper procedure in relation to surveillance; under-cover officials were not properly authorised! Such a lack of public sector accountability is frightening. Is there never a guiding hand? Everyone knew about incompetent civil servants from numerous media disclosures; but John Reid’s ‘Eureka’ revelation confirming his department as being ‘unfit for purpose’ gave confirmation to all the tatty civil service stories re bungling and incompetence. With this ‘enlightenment’ the electorate then realised that the whole running of government was indeed under sufferance from wholesale ‘unfit for purpose’ civil servants!
The nation began to learn that honest ‘delivery’ of projects or even ‘good service’ are concepts beyond the grasp of many within the public sector? That red tape is often used as a purposeful tool to slow everything down, a cover-up for civil servants inability or wanton behaviour that delays delivery.
We have learned from civil service sources how, to a frightening extent, public services are overburdened with bureaucracy and non-jobs. For instance it is claimed there are some 4000 civil servants paid an estimated £135m despite having no jobs? The leading rogue department seems to be the Revenue who have some 3000 tax inspectors who hide under the spurious get-out-of-jail excuse that they are ‘presurplus staff’.
We have already mentioned the extremely fortunate financial ‘glitch’ that meant Revenue tax inspectors had been overpaid some £8m. Such squalid destruction of honest running of government allied with the public sector’s costly formation of gravy trains is an indictment of many an experts claim that there are ‘too many’ civil servants with not enough work!
With the present economic crisis many honest citizens are hard hit, are out of work – out of pocket. There is annoyance at the continuous cosy employment and pension advantage that many bungling incompetent civil servant now enjoy at taxpayer expense.
Parliamentary democracy has largely been killed off by Whitehall’s indifference to honest representation and accountability towards the electorate, where citizen complainants can be abused by civil servants without having honest redress.
Such contempt by the public sector is a serious challenge to public order and a threat to the survival of the state.
Yours truly debased
AW & I Tanner cc to all interested in public sector corruption