Annual report - 2004 - Part 5
Report on our Charter commitments from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
Advisory services
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Our advisory services are a vital way of reaching specific community groups by making visits and helping them to understand their tax obligations or the entitlements that they can receive. This also includes managing relationships with business groups and accountants who handle people's tax affairs. We increased resourcing to advisory work from 76 full-time equivalents (FTEs) last year to 93 FTEs in 2003-04. Satisfaction with the service increased to 97%, up 3% on last year.
One particular area of focus this year has been on ensuring that Maaori groups have been fully informed on changes to the Maaori authorities legislation. We held ten information workshops and follow up work is now being done locally by our Maaori Community Officers.
Delivering services electronically
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Access to electronic information and services is fast becoming a "must" for many people and we are ensuring we are meeting this growing demand. For example, taxpayers and tax agents can now file
all major returns online. Use of all our online services such as returns, forms, secure email and calculators is steadily increasing.
We are also continuing to introduce new services. This year we introduced a look at account information service that allows student loan borrowers to view their Inland Revenue account through a secure online system. This service is progressively being extended to tax agents. Along with extending these services in 2003-04, we have also implemented suggestions from users. For example, we now have a text box in the electronic GST return so that people can include messages on the return, rather than writing a separate letter. We have also added more forms and calculators to make it easier to file returns. We will continue to enhance these services as customers' needs evolve.
New technology to improve access to information
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Inland Revenue is investing in electronic tools to support our people who are working outside Inland Revenue offices so that they can link into our information systems. This will make them more mobile when they are doing their work, and enable them to provide accurate and consistent information when they meet taxpayers in their own environment.
Technical skills
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We are committed to strengthening our capability by investing in the continual improvement of our technical skills so that we provide reliable advice and information to taxpayers and other customers.
We continue to promote ongoing training and professional membership. We are the third largest employer of Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (ICANZ) members, with 270 professionally qualified staff having membership. We are also an ICANZ Approved Training Organisation for accounting graduates.
Currently, 23% of our staff have undergraduate qualifications and 12% have other tertiary qualifications. In 2003-04, over 80% of external recruits to investigator, advisor, and senior positions in the Corporates group, had one or more undergraduate degrees. We are also promoting further training with over 150 of our investigation staff studying towards gaining a qualification or professional membership.
In the last year:
- the average technical competency for service delivery staff has increased.
- we launched Headstart, a structured programme run over 12 months working towards the National Certificate in Administration of Revenue Law, a level 5 NZQA qualification (similar level as advanced trades, technical and business qualifications). So far, 61 people have started the programme with 30 people having completed.
- our inhouse aspire courses have continued to provide our people with training and updates on technical issues. Over 3,300 staff completed 62 aspire training courses.
- work started on a new training programme for investigators joining our audit teams. The programme is an integral part of the wider Audit Strategy which is emphasising the use of intelligence and a range of audit responses to improve long-term compliance.
Monitoring and reporting the quality of our work
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We measure the quality of our services by looking at the correctness, clarity, completeness and timeliness of responses.
This year our target was to improve our child support results by 5% on last year (from 76.1% to 80%). Our performance increased by 15%, with 87.6% of responses meeting our standards. This increase built on the improvement measures put in place in 2002-03 where we placed emphasis on improving technical advice and resources.
Our target for our general information responses was to improve by 1% on last year's result of 82%. However, our results declined, with 77.5% of responses meeting all of the correctness, clarity, completeness and timeliness standards. The correctness and clarity of our responses to our customers remained at a similar level to last year, but there was a decline in the completeness of our written responses. This does not necessarily mean that customers received an incorrect or incomplete response as our standards refer to not just the answer to the customer, but also to the completeness of our record keeping. During the year we undertook training to raise performance. The training has resulted in 85% of surveyed work meeting the completeness standard at the end of the year.
Call recording
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Understanding why our customers contact us has been greatly assisted by the introduction of call recording to our five call centres in late 2003-04. The information from call recording is helping us to design improved processes to enhance our customer service.
Call recording also ensures that we continue to provide consistent and accurate information to customers through assisting in identifying and managing staff development.
Code of Conduct
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Our Code of Conduct explains the expectations we have of our people so that we meet our statutory obligations relating to confidentiality and secrecy of taxpayer information as set out in the Tax Administration Act. Our Code also sets out the standards of integrity and behaviour required of Inland Revenue staff. It builds on the minimum requirements established by the State Sector Act and other public sector legislation and the requirements of public service employers and employees set out in the State Services Commission's Public Service Code of Conduct.
Our new staff receive our Code of Conduct when they join Inland Revenue. As part of their induction process they confirm that they have received and read it, and understand the potentially significant consequences of any breaches. We also have an educational process to ensure that our people remain aware of the code.
Training on ethical standards
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Inland Revenue has continued to promote standards of integrity through innovative training techniques. During 2003-04 integrity and ethics education programmes were delivered to 86% of staff through facilitated sessions in their areas. Remaining staff will be trained by the end of 2004, and new staff will receive training as part of their induction process.
This training received the 2004 State Services Commissioner's Award for Ethics, Values and Standards with the team that tailored and delivered the programme being recognised as making an outstanding contribution to the ethics, values and standards of the New Zealand Public Service.
The initiative has also received a very positive response from staff, with 89% of attendees agreeing, or strongly agreeing, that as a result of the course they had a greater awareness of what constitutes misconduct or wrongdoing.
Confidentiality of taxpayer and other customers' information
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Confidentiality of information is vital to maintain community confidence in the tax administration. To safeguard against misuse of taxpayer data our computer systems are monitored and a "history" of user access is kept for reference.
We refer to these records if we receive complaints from taxpayers and also to be proactive ourselves to ensure that information, or access to the system, is not misused. Misuse occurs if taxpayer records are accessed without authorisation or if a breach of secrecy has occurred.
In 2003-04 we concluded 105 investigations into possible misuse and during the year 38 staff were dismissed in relation to breaches of secrecy and inappropriate action within the computer system.
Date published: 16 Nov 2004
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