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THE CHAIRPERSON OF the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, has said that she has almost more confidence in the property tax helpline it uses following allegations of fraud.
It emerged yesterday that an operator on the line has been suspended after unnecessarily asking customers for their credit card details.
Feehily told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning that the issue was raised by a customer using the helpline. She said that “nobody has suffered a loss”, which is the “most important” thing.
The Revenue is going to continue using the company, Abtran, said Feehily. A worker at Cork-based Abtran’s telephone property tax helpline has been suspended following allegations that they inappropriately asked callers for their credit card details.
The worker attempted to “effect transactions” but failed to do so, the company said. The incidents are now under investigation and gardaí have spoken to the employee involved, but there have been no arrests.
Confident
Feehily said that “in some ways I’d almost be more confident” in Abtran, saying the company is “very professional” and that it got a “fright” over the incident. She said that Revenue are expecting that their calls “will be monitored even more closely” and the service provided will be even more secure.
Calls are dealt with by Abtran staff, but if they need to be escalated, are then sent on to Revenue staff. When asked if customers will mind not speaking to someone from Revenue on the helpline, Feehily said she didn’t think so, and that:
I think that it’s about providing them with a secure, professional and competent service.
Feehily said that she would like to assure people they can have trust in the helpline, and that the calls are supervised daily by her officers and there are Revenue employees working with Abtran and monitoring the calls closely.
She added that she is satisfied that the issue came to light, and that it was handled professionally. Revenue will be meeting with Abtran to review all of their policies following this incident.
Any customer with concerns about their payment can contact a dedicated Revenue number, 1890 22 63 36. This is a separate helpline and is not the one operated by Abtran.
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“Revenue has ‘almost more confidence’ in helpline”
Good stuff. In that case I’ll almost pay the property tax.
It would never have come to their attention only for a person got suspicious about activity with their own card…
I though management overheard them asking for cards. That’s what’s said in the Irish Times.
Property Tax- a fiasco from beginning to end.
Ok hang on wait a second let me get this right, so if you have concerns about the LPT helpline allegations of fraud, you can how ring another helpline. I wonder does this person answer the phone with the line ” Hello this is the helpline.. helpline how may I help you”.
This just gets better day by day.
..I’m sure you won’t get anyone Irish either..
Are there not enough civil servants in the country why did this need to be outsourced in the first place?
Add to that the fact that it was the customer not the Revenue that discovered this fraud
Diaster from beginning to end
Axe the bloody Tax !
Do you take us for fools Ms. Feehily? If your Revenue officers and were really ‘monitoring the calls closely’ on a daily basis, then why was it necessary for a member of the public to highlight potential criminal activity in the Abtran call centre?
You are demonstrating your contempt for us and perfectly mimicking the tactics of deceitful spin and bullying favoured by your masters in government.
CAHWT is organising the fight against this unjust tax and the austerity program generally being imposed on the Irish people by to pay for the socialisation of banking debt. Please go along to your local meetings and get involved.
http://nohouseholdtax.org/
Can revenue not do their own job.
Why tie up alot of revenue staff answering queries ? It’s only an information line, you can’t pay your tax via it
Exactly – it’s called efficiency – something the revenue are actually v good at. Their online service is v good – a model for many in Europe.
It is one department that you to be ultra-efficient and well staffed. Especially when the govt is broke
yet another reason , why i shouldn’t pay the property developer’s-debt tax.
out of curiousity ,why didn’t the revenue create a new call centre (creating jobs) , instead of just outsourcing it , as abtran didn’t create any new jobs , this just moved some staff around.
Because if they did, they are pensionable jobs for life…. And paid at a premium rate
The dangers of outsourcing. CPSU highlighted the dangers and pointed out that Revenue had the staff available. CPSU lost the case and now we see the consequences.
Actually this created a lot of new jobs in Abtran. My brother had been out of work for a while and he got one of these jobs. As did many more it seems.
Privatisation of these services is wrong. Low paid employees of private companies have access to tax and employment and banking information of citizens. Unlike civil servants they are not subject to the official secrets act and it would be difficult to prosecute them for misuse of information. I know civil servants aren’t perfect but a few have been prosecuted and sent to jail for inappropriately accessing personal records. I haven’t heard of this happening in the private companies that process our p45s and medical cards and back to school claims. If the caller hadn’t reported this employee no one would be any the wiser……
The tax has been exposed as a TOTAL con pulled on 1.2 million Irish people.
A total CON.
Don’t believe me?
Read for yourself and decide: http://alturl.com/56itq
1.2 million were conned and 4.5 million+ people was LIED TO!”
Is this one of those times where “they would say,wouldn’t they” is very true?
“they would say that” even.
“Almost more confident..”
..WTF? ..enough said
Legal challenge at attackthetax.com that cam protect even those who paid due to fear or intimidation
Well done, Ms. Feehily. How brave of you to plough such a lonely furrow. You may well be unique in your ‘almost more confidence’. Go away, you annoy me.
If your confident your confident.” Almost more confident. “Doesn’t that = not confident,Or not really sure, ah sure feck it. It’ll probably be grand
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