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Source: ONE News -
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The credit crunch continues to hit the public service with jobs to be cut at the IRD as government departments attempt to trim budgets.
New Zealand's tax department, Inland Revenue, is calling for up to 250 voluntary redundancies from its workforce of 6,000.
IRD staff were told of the plan at meetings around the country on Wednesday.
"We're prepared to seek up to 250 people who would voluntarily exit the organisation and we are confident that we can realign the resources we have and meet work commitments that we have," says Robert Russell Inland Revenue Commissioner.
The government in March announced a cap on public servants, setting the number at 38,859 - the number of full time employees at the end of December last year.
State Services Minister Tony Ryall said at the time that putting a cap on the number of workers would provide greater flexibility in rebalancing staff numbers and resources between and within government organisations.
The government has already announced plans to cut 500 from the Ministry of Social Development, 90 positions at the Environment Ministry and 70 at the Tertiary Education Commission.
However, National's plan has come under criticism from the Public Services Association (PSA) which says jobs are being cut, not rebalanced and quality will be affected.
"The IRD won't be able to deliver the quality of service it has been delivering now and into the future and... (it will) put a lot of stress on the people who remain" says Richard Wagstaff of the PSA.
Accountants say the IRD is already overburdened with new initiatives like KiwiSaver while other tax work is piling up.
"Our members are still experiencing difficulties at peak times....and we will be concerned that this will take resources out of the frontline to answer queries" says Geoff Nightingale from the Institue of Chartered Accountants.
The department has faced criticism in the past for its slow response to taxpayers' queries but the minister is downplaying the likely impact of the job cuts.
"I don't think you will see that people where they are in positions where they are directly affecting the public service will be caught by this. These are positions involved in setting up KiwiSaver and making the big policy changes" says Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.
There will be two weeks of consultation before the job losses are confirmed.
