TSLPI 18. Linda Dzaferic, IRD

Several lessons can be taken from the [mis]conduct of an employee of New Zealand’s most powerful government agency, the GST people – The “Grab, Snatch & Take” Department – Inland Revenue.

Personalisation

People with power often use their power to mask, hide or endorse their misconduct. It is legislatively difficult to prosecute the authorities – be this the tax man or the local government or indeed any government department. This anonymisation of responsibility can be reversed for increasing any impact in moves of defence within a ‘war’.

On receiving dishonest and unprofessional treatment at the hands of one of these people who hide their misconduct behind the authority granted by the state, I obtained a high resolution photograph of a Linda Dzaferic, a senior manager within NZ’s Inland Revenue and used it on the front cover of a tell-all book. Threatening to publish the details of her misdeed and her and the department’s subsequent cover-up, altered the position of the employee in question substantially.

With the face of corruption identified, instead of “one little guy with no chance against the system” the battle lines were drawn up along the lines of a true “one-on-one” and the playing field was instantly levelled.

Covering Up

There are different ways to cover up something untoward – inquiries with limited or narrow terms of reference, ignoring any trouble, distortion, obfuscation, threatening conduct, retaliatory actions, and when the IRD an adverse assessment, investigation or even litigation is always possible. Plausible denial is often used by politicians. In IRD’s case a formal complaint was handled by the person complained about who said, “I’m happy with the way we handled the issue!” and taking it still further up the chain of command “no fault found” from a clear breach of due process. “Move along please. Nothing to see here!”

TIP 16:

Using personal information such as a
photo is a balancing act between the potential to cause an individual privacy concerns and the public interest.
Linda Dzaferic shared this photo on both her Facebook and her Linked In profiles.

Sharing Personal Information

Obtaining a high resolution photograph such as that of Linda Dzaferic and then using it on the cover of a book is an aggressive stance, especially when taking on the integrity of arguably the government’s most powerful department. One has to have the unequivocal evidence of the individual’s mis-conduct and it has to be a clear case of misconduct too, sufficient that Crown Law cannot find a grounds for litigation.