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Colin reads out new Taxpayers' Charter

Colin reads out a quite unique version of HMRC's 'Taxpayers' Charter'. View Colin here or click the pic.

January 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bourn's bedtime stories

TS has been flicking through Sir John Bourn's new book,Public sector auditing: is it value for money? (TS can't sleep, that's all).

We feel duty bound to point out first of all that the book is the product of many years' experience, and anyone with a key interest in public sector auditing should obviously read it.

But it reads a little bit like an National Audit Office report, all tables and graphs and outcomes and processes. Give us some anecdotes, Sir John. Keep gossip columnists interested!

There's no chapter on auditor general's expenses, either. Why so coy?

The most interesting bit, for us, was Sir John's rude joke about auditors. To make criticism of bureaucrats effective, Sir John says, it must be constructive. '[This] requires auditors to have an understanding of human behaviour - a skill not typically associated with the audit profession.'

Ouch! That's not very constructive either Sir J.

January 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Treasury hires Mr Bean

TS was amused to see that there's a parliamentary meeting due on Wednesday about 'counting the population'. No, we know that's not funny in itself.

But the expert who was due to brief MPs on the Treasury committee looking at the issue was one Charlie Bean of Bank of England fame.

You'll see where we're going. Charlie Bean-counting the population.

Let's hope he's not actually an accountant or he'll have heard that joke a few times before, we'd have thought.

January 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

TS gets the lowdown on KPMG's future

TS was hanging out with heads of KPMG past and present just before Christmas, and we can relay to you new worries about the firm's future.

John Griffith-Jones, the current head, has expressed concern that Sir Mike Rake, the former chairman, is now a non-exec at Barclays: 'Now he is not just in charge of our phones, but also our bank account,' said JG-J. Should KPMG be concerned?

Well, when we asked Sir Mike about it before Christmas...

...Sir Mike replied that KPMG might be facing a 'credit crunch' of its own, now that he had some control over the purse strings. Lord Sharman, who was listening in (TS only hangs out with the top people) found this very funny, but we don't think JG-J will. TS is awaiting KPMG's urgent crisis meeting with bankers with baited breath.

January 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

TV turn-off boosts online filing

You will of course remember that in 2006 TS revealed that a whopping 84 (sad) individuals, or their advisers (sadder), filed self assessments returns online on Christmas day.

Yet an almost incomprehensible figure of 489 did the dirty deed on 25 December 2007.

OK, online filing's 26% more popular than the year before, but even TS can work out that doesn't make up the difference.

So, is it due to greater broadband take-up? Greater confidence in HMRC's online processes? Less confidence in HMRC's ability to handle anything hard-copy after the winter of disc-content?

No, TS has decided. It was due to rubbish Christmas telly, about the worst in recent memory.

Shrek 2, Coronation Street, and (shudder) To The Manor Born. 'Nuff said.

January 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Andersen still making US political donations

Andersen may not be one of the Big Five any longer, but it is still, amazingly, making political donations.

Records of donations made by the staff of the firm show that they gave $500 (£253) in 2006. How, exactly?

TS assumed that the firm was now nothing more than a legal entity? Any ideas, e-mail.

The firm, former partners may be pleased to know, is still on the list of top donors to political parties.

It gave $86,586 split between the Republicans and the Democrats in 2004 and a whopping $1.5m donated in 2000. All in all, Andersen has given out $6,290,362 since 1990.

That means it comes 99th on the list of the top 100 donors to US political parties.

Former partners may be less pleased to know that the company that just pips Andersen to position 98 on the list is none other than one Enron Corporation Inc.

January 14, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Former Andersen finance chief joins printers

TS noticed that Richard Timmins has joined Polestar as group FD.

Timmins was Andersen UK CFO when things went pear-shaped for the firm in 2002 (not that it was anything to do with him, TS hastens to add, having joined the firm just a few months earlier).

But he's clearly not after a quiet life following that hoo-ha.

He has joined a printing group at a time when printing is a pretty tough industry to say the least. Indeed Polestar has undergone some serious restructuring in the past.

Good luck Richard.

January 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack