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It claimed unreported taxes “identified” by the audit program grew 24 per cent in three years to $11.7 billion, but was unclear how much was collected. Similarly, the international and large business program “detected” $7.8 billion in unreported tax last year.

The agency also took exception with the union representing auditors that the revamped multi-disciplinary audit teams that replaced many international audit units were not effective because the new teams don’t begin until 2016.

What’s unusual about the report – if not unprecedented – is for public servants, who are supposed to be loyal and non-partisan, to team up with an advocacy group to complain about the government and its policies. The public servants were not identified and they divulged nothing about specific cases.

Their involvement appears to breach the ethics code of the agency, which doesn’t seem to be taking action.

“Any allegation of a breach of the code must be investigated through a fair and impartial process before it can be confirmed,” said Brideau.

“As the CRA does not currently have the information required to confirm that the information did, in fact, come from current CRA employees or, if it did, to identify those employees, it is not possible to confirm whether a breach has occurred or not,” she said in an email.

Many say the Liberals would be hard-pressed to take any action because it promised to overhaul the tax agency in the same election letter to public servants that it promised a new culture of openness.

Independent Liberal Senator Percy Downe, who has long pressed the CRA to crack down on tax evasion, said he didn’t think the actions of these employees would set a precedent. He argued the big problem is that public servants were fed up hearing the Conservative government say it was cracking down on tax cheats when it wasn’t.

“Public servants know the government sets the direction and they implement it,” said Downe. “It’s this dichotomy between what the government was saying and what it was doing that drove people at CRA to do what they did. I don’t see that happening in other departments.”