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Corporate Governance

The administration and management of taxes and customs is vested in the Revenue Commissioners, who are independent in the performance of their functions for the purposes of relevant enactments as listed in Section 101 (3) of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 2011. The Board of the Revenue Commissioners consists of three Commissioners, one of whom is Chairman. The Chairman is the Accounting Officer for Revenue and the Head of the Office under the Public Service Management Act 1997.

The Board meets regularly to deal with a broad range of issues pertaining to Revenue, including strategic direction, the setting of key corporate priorities, financial and risk management, internal audit reports and minutes of Audit Committee meetings, senior management appointments and resource deployment. The Board reviews compliance with key legislation such as the Ethics in Public Office Acts, the Freedom of Information Acts and the Prompt Payment of Accounts legislation.

The Board reports annually to the Minister for Finance on the implementation of Revenue's Statement of Strategy, as required by the Public Service Management Act 1997.

A formal system of delegation to each Assistant Secretary is in place, in accordance with the Public Service Management Act, with specified lines of responsibility and accountability to the Board. These responsibilities include the management of risk and of divisional resources. In addition, the Board has formally delegated responsibility for certain Human Resource Management matters to Assistant Secretaries as a group.

Management Advisory Committee (MAC)

A Management Advisory Committee, consisting of the Board and all Heads of Division (at Assistant Secretary level), meets at least once a month to monitor performance across the organisation. The MAC reviews existing programmes and priorities to ensure that they remain responsive to emerging developments, deals with business issues which have cross-divisional impact and plays a key role in managing corporate risk.

Ethics in Public Office Acts 1995 and 2001

All Revenue officials at Assistant Principal level and above, as well as certain other officials, involved, for example, in procurement decisions, are required to submit an annual Statement of Interests under these Acts. In addition, the Board members are required to submit a Certificate of Tax Clearance not more than nine months before or after taking up duty.

Civil Service Code of Standards and Behaviour

The Code forms part of the terms and conditions of service of all Civil Servants. It underpins the existing rules in many areas, including Revenue’s own Code of Ethics, and sets out the main principles, standards and values that the Civil Service espouses and upholds.

The Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005

The Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005 gives each Secretary General/Head of Scheduled Office, as appropriate authority, responsibility for managing all matters relating to performance, conduct and discipline of civil servants below Principal Officer level. (Ministers and Government continue to be the appropriate authority for these matters in relation to civil servants at or above Principal level). The Act and the revised Civil Service Disciplinary Code came into effect on 4th July 2006.

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Internal Audit

The Board places a high degree of importance on having systems and processes independently examined and assessed by Revenue’s internal audit function. An audit plan is prepared each year, following consultation with the Board, senior management, Audit Committee and input from the Director of Internal Audit. The Chairman of the Board approves the plan. The Director of Internal Audit reports directly to the Chairman, as Accounting Officer.

An Audit Committee provides independent governance assurance to the Revenue Board. The committee is made up of five members, four of whom are from outside Revenue. The role of the Committee is to oversee the internal audit function and to provide objective advice to the Revenue Board in relation to its operation and development.

Audit Committee Membership

• Mr. Gerry Kearney, Chairman and former secretary-general of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
• Ms. Siobhán Lawlor, Principal Officer, Department of Social Protection
• Mr Eugene Creighton, Assistant Secretary, Income & Capital Taxes Division, Revenue
• Mr. Richard Murphy, Principal Auditor, Local Government Audit Service, Department of Environment, Community and Local Government
• Mr. Tommy Quinn, Head of Corporate Services, Public Appointments Service, Chapter House, 26/30 Abbey Street Upper, Dublin 1

Appeals

Taxpayers have rights of appeal to the Appeal Commissioners and the Courts in relation to a range of tax and duty issues. Depending on their complexity, certain appeals can take a considerable time to bring to finality.

Table 26 sets out the decisions given in appeal cases at the various stages in 2011.

Table 26: Outcome of Appeals in 2011

	Total 2011	Decided - Won by Revenue	Decided - Won by Appellant	Settled or Withdrawn
Cases at Supreme Court stage	1	1	-	-
Cases at High Court stage	7	-	1	6
Cases at CCJ stage	15	10	2	3
Cases at Appeal Commissioner stage	84	26	22	36
Total	107	37	25	45

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Joint and Internal Review Procedure

Taxpayers who are dissatisfied with Revenue’s handling of their tax affairs can have their case reviewed, either internally by a senior Revenue officer or by an External Reviewer acting in conjunction with a senior Revenue officer. The number of taxpayers requesting Joint and Internal Reviews in 2011 is set out in Table 27.

Table 27: Internal reviews in 2011

Cases	Internal	Joint	2011 Total	Internal	Joint	2010 Total
Number Received	22	63	85	20	51	71
Number Finalised	20	54	74	19	44	63
Decision Upheld	13	42	55	7	35	42
Decision Revised / Partly Revised	2	8	10	8	7	15
Withdrawn or agreed prior to being sent to Reviewers	5	4	9	4	2	6

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Ombudsman

In 2011, the Ombudsman received 134 complaints relating to Revenue and finalised 118 complaints. Table 28: Complaints relating to Revenue made to the Ombudsman in 2011 and Table 29: Complaints relating to Revenue completed by the Ombudsman in 2011 provide further summary information.

Table 28: Complaints relating to Revenue made to the Ombudsman in 2011

Category	No. of Complaints
Income Tax	46
VAT/Inheritance Tax/CGT	26
Customs & Excise	6
Stamp Duty	2
Delay/no response to Correspondence	10
Miscellaneous	29
VRT	15
Total	134

Table 29: Complaints relating to Revenue completed by the Ombudsman in 2011

Total Completed and Outcome	Number of Complaints
Not Upheld	22
Withdrawn	56
Discontinued	17
Assistance Provided	16
Partially Resolved	1
Resolved	6
Total	118

Freedom of Information

Revenue's Freedom of Information publications under Section 15 of the FoI Acts (structure, organisation, functions, services and records of Revenue) and Section 16 (rules, procedures, practices, guidelines and interpretations of Revenue) are updated as required and published on our website.

Table 30: FOI Requests

FOI Requests	2011	2010
Received	232	194
Released in Full	80	73
Released in Part	86	57
Refused	32	36
Deal with outside of FOI/Withdrawn/Transferred	31	24
Requests for Internal Review	25	18
Appeals to the Information Commissioner	2	10

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Assistant Secretaries

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Senior Management Changes

• Mr. Michael O'Grady, Commissioner, retired on 1 February 2012
• Mr. Willie Funnell, Assistant Secretary, retired on 29 February 2012
• Mr. Frank Mullen, Assistant Secretary, retired on 29 February 2012

Following a Top Level Appointments Commission (TLAC) competition, the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, TD, appointed:

• Mr. Niall Cody as Commissioner on 1 February 2012

Following a Top Level Appointments Commission (TLAC) competition, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, TD, appointed:

• Marie-Claire Maney as Assistant Secretary/Revenue Solicitor on 31 January 2011
• Paul Dempsey, as Assistant Secretary on 19 May 2011. The Revenue Board has assigned Mr Dempsey to Corporate Services Division
• Breda Ruddle, as Assistant Secretary on 19 May 2011. The Revenue Board has assigned Ms. Ruddle to Investigations & Prosecutions Services Division

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