Who is kidding whom?

The Revenue's latest annual report contains the following statement by Ann Chant Deputy Chairman Strategic Service Delivery Inland Revenue: 'In 1999-00 our national network of local offices dealt with about 74 million items of post many of them requiring co-ordination by several Inland Revenue offices. We set the target of a full response to all postal enquiries within 28 calendar days in 80 per cent of cases – we exceeded this achieving 84 per cent'.
I have serious doubts about the correctness of this statement. My experience is that if the Revenue raises a query with me it expects an answer in 30 days. Once the answer has been provided it may then reply saying that there may be a delay in responding.
If however I write to a tax office querying a point or pointing out an...