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By Joey Gardiner, 31 May 2002 17:00

NEWS The Inland Revenue (IR) has refused to blame EzGov, the US technology company behind its online tax return systems, for the embarrassing security gaffe which led to the site's closure last week. The finger of suspicion has instead turned to a problem with an unnamed ISP after a spokeswoman for the e-envoy, Andrew Pinder, said that that was where the investigation was focused. The contract to supply IT for the IR is a £2.4bn PFI deal with outsourcing giant EDS. However in the Financial Times today the buck was passed to government software maker EzGov, who provided the software under the EDS contract. Earlier in the day European offices of EzGov were not taking any calls, with all enquiries being passed to voicemail. However this afternoon the firm issued a joint statement with the Inland Revenue. It said: "The Inland Revenue have made it very clear that they are not apportioning blame for the problem to EzGov." This is despite EzGov admitting its software was used to build the online assessment form that has been taken out of service. A spokeswoman for the e-envoy said the problems were limited to customers of one unnamed ISP. She said: "It is assumed the problem lies somewhere between the form itself and the ISP." The IR refused to confirm this was the case, but said that fewer than ten queries from concerned users. She added: "Users were concerned that there were snippets of information that they knew they didn't put there. We have withdrawn the service temporarily and are working round the clock to resolve the issue." For its part, EDS also was tight-lipped, commenting no further than a formal statement in which it admitted a security problem with the self assessment forms was being investigated. There is currently no timeframe for the resumption of the service. The IR was adamant the security breach would have no impact on its timetable to get all businesses to file their PAYE returns online by 2010. The news caused a stir earlier in the month when it became clear even the smallest businesses would have to become IT literate enough to file PAYE returns on the web or face hefty fines.