No One Is Above The Law

When I first stood back in 2008, one of the two things I was campaigning against was the Income Tax Department's wilful disregard for the Income Tax law.

Well, thanks in no small part, I'm sure, to a then-Deputy Gorst, the Income Tax Department mended its ways and started obeying the law.

Since then, that deputy has gone on to become Chief Minister and it would appear that the Income Tax Department has thought that he would be too busy to notice and have gone back to the law-breaking ways. And they're right.

Of the many ways that they break the law, the worst is that they dispose of all documentation after 5 years. This is a direct violation of the data protection law and your human rights because they are destroying legal documentation that you may require later should there be any issues that call for a re-assessment of any previous years income tax. The real reason that they're doing is to hide their mistakes in the hope that you won't have kept vital records yourself. But whatever the reason for this, it is a criminal act.

If they weren't going to keep them, the least they should do is return them to the owners of the information ie you. But they don't, they destroy it and they do so without notice to allow you to ensure that you have proper copies.

The really bad news is that other departments have seen the Income Tax Department getting away with it and have decided to follow them including Social Security, amongst others. And they've been doing it for some time.

Now the reason they do ths is because they think that they are above the law. Apparently, there is a law that states that no civil servant will be held responsible for their actions. Well, I hate to say this, but this law has been superceded. In 2000 when we introduced the human rights legislation, we introduced a requirement that any existing law that are subsequently found to infringe human rights are automatically null and void

A law that allows the civil service to violate the public without recourse is a direct violation of articles 7 and 14.

I want to know why we have not enacted this human rights legislation on any and every law protecting civil servants and politicians. After all, it's been around for 18 years now.

No one is above the law. Everyone should obey the same law - including civil servants - especially civil servants