Post-Hodge PAC looks kinder, gentler, but less effective
|
Version 0 of 1. Another depressing dish served up by those who are supposed to hold companies and public bodies to account came courtesy of the new House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Previously, appearances by HM Revenue & Customs before it took the form of American football matches, with chairwoman Margaret Hodge taking the role of Ndamukong Suh, the fearsome defensive tackle who will this year be flattening opposing quarterbacks for the London-bound Miami Dolphins. Ms Hodge’s replacement, Meg Hillier, had signalled a change of tack, after beating out the rather more formidable Gisela Stuart to the role. The first appearance of HMRC boss Lin Homer before the committee provided a demonstration of the new approach. Future hearings, it seems, will be more akin to village cricket matches. Tory Stephen Phillips, it’s true, bowled a few bouncers, and bouncers are really what was required. The service provided by HMRC, despite the best efforts of Ms Hodge, is actually deteriorating in some respects. Less than 40 per cent of calls to the agency get answered within five minutes, for example. A large minority don’t get answered at all. Ms Homer played a forward defensive when confronted with this, saying eight out of 10 “customers” found her organisation “reasonably easy” to deal with. Meanwhile a few million more has been added to the pile, courtesy of tax cheats on the “Lagarde list” that emerged from HSBC’s hugely controversial Swiss unit, but there’s still been just one successful prosecution. That was what raised the ire of Mr Philips, and no wonder. The methods of Ms Hodge frequently attracted criticism. She was accused of “bullying” and being “abusive”, words which have also been used about Mr Suh. But her tactics were nonetheless very effective in forcing issues such as HMRC’s poor performance, not to mention the abusive practices employed by multinational companies to avoid paying corporation tax, on to the agenda. It appears that that has come to an end, which was perhaps why Ms Hillier was elevated to the role as opposed to the feisty Ms Stuart, who might just have done a better job at representing the public interest. |