TekSystems (Allegis Group] - Beware!

[BrilloPad]

I joined TEK systems about 3 months ago. I just made up the answers as I went along.

The keep asking for stuff for HMRC as well. I ignore it. And they are still paying me.

If you have another gig to go to then fine. If its your only gig then decide if you want to fill in the form or not.

[BlasterBates]

It's because of:

http://http://www.mggroup.co.uk/blog/archive/article/2015/June/employment-agencies-reporting-requirements

An intermediary must provide the worker’s details and payment details for workers where it hasn’t operated PAYE. This includes overseas workers and payments where the worker is working in the UK or working temporarily abroad.

They have a duty to ensure the payments aren't being siphoned off to some dodgy offshore individual.

[Scrag Meister]

I was "put forward" for a contract by TekSystems after accepting their sole representation only to find via a fortuitous route that my CV hadn't actually been sent to the client.

Now VERY dubious about any of their motivations and wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

[billybiro]

If you're not happy answering that part of the question then don't answer it What is your concern with providing this information? Do you think it will be to your detriment in some way? Am not saying you should or shouldn't answer the questions - just wondered what your concerns are

What did you have for breakfast this morning?
What is your blood type?
When did you last have sexual intercourse?

These are all questions I could ask, and you could provide answers to all without being of any detriment to yourself.

Something tells me, though, that you won't be very forthcoming with answers, and why should you? These are very personal questions, the answers to which are none of my damn business!

Does this answer your question?

[whattheheck]

I have sought some advice and had a few discussions and have come to a final decision, which I informed Teksystems/Allegis Group about:

From: xxx [mailto:xxx]
Sent: 18 September 2015 14:30
To: 'xxx'
Cc: 'xxx'
Subject: Update on e-questionnaire, etc...

Hi xxx,

I have now received some more advice and I regret I am unable to sign the e-questionnaire.

However, please feel welcome to proceed as follows, in order to issue the contract:

1. Any details that you may need are already in the Public Domain and can be obtained direct from Companies House. You don’t need me to sign anything in order to get them.
2. Any other details that you cannot obtain via Companies House or Companies House is not allowed to provide to you, then neither you, nor Allegis Group or Teksystems are entitled to have them.
3. Any other details of requirements involving inner functions of a Ltd Company fall outside the scope of your remit and may not be granted. This includes details of dividends, or salary payments, or how the company operates its finances. If you have any concerns, please request a certificate of good standing from Companies House, they provide them to any requestor, as far as I have been told.
4. Personal details, such as names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of third parties as requested in the e-questionnaire cannot be fulfilled as they represent a breach of the DPA from my part if I allowed such details to be released.

I hope this satisfies fully your requirements.

Can you please proceed with whatever you need to do in order to complete the process, as we are running out of time. It is 02:30PM right now so we have plenty of time to get the ball rolling.

If however you cannot proceed with issuing the contract, that is absolutely fine. I have been a contractor and a professional for long enough to know that there is no price tag in one’s integrity.

Many thanks

Kind regards

xxx

[northernladuk]

That last paragraph is a bit mehhhh

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

The E-questionnaire is specifically designed to enforce ALL the questions, confirmations and statements in the online forms. Moreover, it is cleverly designed so the answer has to be YES or NO and when NO, you are immediately required to fill in the details in another field, which is also mandatory. You can't skip any questions and if you tried to copy paste the contents, forget it as it won't allow you to do that. I have a full copy of the questionnaire because I did snapshots of all the screens, otherwise not only the questionnaire is highly intrusive, I would have no evidence in my records to show.

All these practices are highly questionable.

The internal decision-making processes in regards to a lot of things, such as dividend decisions, or salary payments or how funds received are banked, are inner workings of a Ltd Company. The same applies to other details, such as those falling under jurisdiction of the DPA 1998 for example. I would be liable to get into trouble by passing private and personal details of third parties/persons to an organisation [Teksystems/Allegis Group or any other for that matter].
That questionnaire is a mine-field and if Teksystems decided to make you life hell over a point of detail, you would be liable and on top of it probably not covered by the business insurance, because the insurance could very well argue that you did not seek advice before signing the damn online form. And you land in the boiling hot water pot instantly.

Forgive me for saying this but I think you might be over-reacting just a little bit. I would imagine that the agency don't want the information for any other reason than to appease the powers that be at HMRC - what hot water do you think you would land in? The information that's being asked for is publicly available anyway - on DueDil for instance

[whattheheck]

It's because of:

http://http://www.mggroup.co.uk/blog/archive/article/2015/June/employment-agencies-reporting-requirements

They have a duty to ensure the payments aren't being siphoned off to some dodgy offshore individual.

That's already been established via provision of Driving License, Ltd Company certificate and bank account details, proof of address [Council Tax Bill provided], etc. It is pretty crystal clear that operations fall within the UK jurisdiction only.

Plus, it is utterly hypocritical of them [or HMRC or the Law for that matter] to have such deep concerns for IT contractor companies, most of which are micro-companies, whilst allowing the super-rich get away with murder AND benefit from HMRC's blind eye about it.

Thus, if the issue is about corruption, fraud and malpractice, I would suggest they check themselves first, in order to have the higher moral ground to check the others. Otherwise, I am entitled to conclude that the State has become utterly corrupt and on top of that, shameless since corruption is now in the Public Domain and they still carry on

[whattheheck]

Forgive me for saying this but I think you might be over-reacting just a little bit. I would imagine that the agency don't want the information for any other reason than to appease the powers that be at HMRC - what hot water do you think you would land in? The information that's being asked for is publicly available anyway - on DueDil for instance

Maybe... Usually over-reactions result from over-the-top-actions... Nobody in their good senses over-react for nothing.

[whattheheck]

That last paragraph is a bit mehhhh

LOL... I agree... I think I am now trying to irritate the person at the other end... LOL