The general director of the Tax Authority resigned from office today, saying that there is no VIP Taxpayers List and justified his exit on his own failure to inform the authority on those internal procedures that may have created the perception that this list existed.
In a leaked email sent to the tax staff today, António Brigas Afonso said he resigned because of news reports about the VIP Taxpayers List, which does not exist.
Afonso was the Director General of the Tax and Customs Authority who, even though he has left his job, still denies the existence of a VIP Taxpayers List. It seem the very absence of this list is enough to see him go.
In the internal email António Brigas Afonso said that "this list does not exist and never existed" and that all disciplinary proceedings in progress against tax office staff suspected of accessing VIP's tax records were due to reports in newspapers about violations of confidentiality and from complaints from individual taxpayers about unauthorised access to their personal data."
In the resignation sent to the Minister of Finance on Wednesday morning, António Brigas Afonso said that the Tax Authority "never" received any list from "any government official" and "never received any instructions, written or oral, from any member of this government" to prepare a list.
The fault at first was solely that of the nasty media for suggesting there may be a list but later on the letter read that the controversy originates from a set of internal decisions by the Tax Authority.
There was an internal audit, after the Prime Minister’s tax records were accessed by tax staff, to see if security had been breached. This audit reported that 69.7% of visits to the prime minister's records "were made out of curiosity" and not due to any good reason to do with work.
In this audit there was reference to the implementation of the control measure, i.e. the VIP Taxpayers List, but this reference apparently was due to ‘an error.’
"I am aware that, by failing to inform the authority of these procedures and internal studies, I may have unwittingly contributed to the creation of a false perception of the existence of an alleged list of certain taxpayers," reads the resignation letter to Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque.
The President of the Tax Workers Union said on Wednesday that the "real culprits" of the alleged VIP List remain in the Tax Authority.
"It seems that unfortunately a person is leaving who had little to do personally with this situation, while I understand that from an institutional point of view it was difficult for him to stay," said Paulo Ralha.
"From our point of view António Brigas Afonso had no responsibility in this matter," said Ralha, although he is "institutionally responsibile" for the case.
The politicians now have their scapegoat but union leader Ralha has named the deputy director-general of the Tax Justice, the auditors, and the Secretary of State for Finance as responsible for the covert operation of the list and in as many words said today that they fired the wrong guy.
