Is the public sector necessarily inefficient?

Today saw the publication of the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Annual Report, a document which, for obvious reasons, is of some interest to me.

I work in Corporation Tax, and I was quite surprised to discover the cost of bringing in each £1 of revenue from Corporation Tax was, in 2005/06, just 0.71p, compared to 1.24p in 2003/04, an apparent improvement of nearly 43% and the sort of improved efficiency that would earn the directors of a private sector company millions of share options and bonuses. What do we get? A warm glow...

In fact, overall, for every £1 raised by HMRC, the department spends 1.11p (we raised £405 billion last year). MBEs all round, Gordon?