Dave Hartnett's HMRC attacks righteous whistleblower

There's a story in today's Guardian about a tax inspector who seems to have been punished for blowing the whistle on Dave Hartnett, a top civil servant at HMRC - the one who let Vodafone off up to £6 billion.

I find that that these stories are complex and difficult to get your head around, so I am going to give the essence here, and you can go to the Guardian if you want the gory detail.

1. Hartnett let Goldman Sachs get away with £10 million in interest on tax. 
2. Osita Mba, a solicitor in HMRC thought this was wrong, and informed two Parliamentary committees. 
3. The day after Mba acted, his address and tel no were passed to HMRC criminal investigation unit, possibly in contravention of the Data Protection Act.

This stinks.

Osita Mba should be honoured for acting in the interests of the taxpayer, not hounded and intimidated.

Hartnett is the one who should be investigated.
Oh. Hang on - he is. A judge is looking at his big corporate tax relief decisions.

Keep an eye on the story.