After the revelation of violations of confidential data of taxpayers without justification, the Federal Revenue decided to restrict the number of public servants authorized to access the tax information of Brazilians. In an official note issued this Friday (3), the agency did not detail what types of limits it intends to implement or how many employees can currently access the system.
The decision comes after the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo revealed that the former head of Revenue Intelligence Ricardo Pereira Feitosa improperly accessed data from opponents of former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2019. This Friday, the same newspaper revealed that artists, presenters of television and former President Bolsonaro himself had data invaded from 2018 to 2020 by other body servers.
After the publication of the report, the Treasury issued a note stating that it ensures the security of data protected by tax secrecy. The Revenue highlighted that all access to the Income Tax system can be tracked and that it will audit the security controls for accessing internal data later this year.
“The institution ensures security, secrecy and control over access to information protected by tax secrecy. All accesses to the IRPF Portal are traceable, making it possible to identify who accessed it and what procedures were performed during access”, emphasizes the official note. “The Revenue will improve the system this year, always requiring adequate and detailed motivation.”
The communiqué also informed that all of the employees of the Federal Revenue who accessed the data of taxpayers without official justification add up to eight people and that all of them have been identified. “Without underestimating the seriousness of the issue and the commitment to improving systems and processes, the Revenue clarifies that, out of a total of around 21,000 servers, the cases cited by the press mention irregularities by eight servers, whose offense was identified and prosecuted. ”, clarified the Tax Authorities.
According to the Revenue, auditing security controls was provided for in the Annual Internal Audit Plan. The body also undertook to adopt the recommendations of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), which published a judgment in December to improve the control of the system.
Last Monday (27), Folha de S.Paulo revealed that tax auditor Ricardo Pereira Feitosa, who commanded the Federal Revenue’s Intelligence sector from May to September 2019, improperly accessed confidential tax data from political opponents of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. This Thursday (2), the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, promised rigor in the investigation and that it will decide on the dismissal of the civil servant in the coming weeks.
