Tax Authority can't trace corrupt employee's searches through citizens' data: report

Corruption investigations at the Tax Authority are hindered by the fact that the office can’t trace its employees’ searches. The Tax Authority’s computer systems do not register what information employees look up, NRC reports.

Tax Authority employees have access to a large amount of citizen and company data, including addresses, license plates, and financial information. But if a tax employee passes such data on to criminals, it is almost impossible for the Tax Authority to prove it, according to the newspaper.

The Tax Authority uses some 900 different computer systems. Most of them aren’t linked with each other, and they often don’t store the log data of searches.

In response, the Tax Authority confirmed that it is difficult to trace all its employee's actions. If necessary, “good investigation” can show which information a suspected employee had access to, a spokesperson said.

According to NRC, this issue came to light during an investigation into an Amsterdam tax office employee arrested this summer. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects the employee sold data to the criminal gang allegedly around Ridouan Taghi. The police found 920,000 euros in cash at their home.

The investigators tried to determine how the tax employee earned this money and whether it came from selling citizens’ data to criminals. But that proved impossible due to the absence of log data.

The Tax Authority employs about 25,000 people, 10,000 of whom have access to citizens’ and companies’ data. Criminals can use this data to find rivals’ addresses or trace the owner of a specific car, for example.

When the authorities foiled an attempt by Ridouan Taghi to break out of the extra security prison in Vught, the police also suspected involvement by a Tax Authority employee. The official in question was allegedly recruited to find the addresses of four guards at the prison. Whether the official actually looked up the information is impossible to say due to the lack of log data, NRC reports.

It is unclear whether the tax official arrested in the summer and the one suspected of involvement in Taghi’s attempted prison break is the same person.