Former deputy chair of the National Tax Directorate, Elizabeta Katiaj, said during an interview for Euronews Albania that the recent data leak exposing the salaries and other sensitive financial information of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens, goes beyond all reasonable expectations as even high-ranking directors at the national Tax Office don’t have access to such databases.
According to Katiaj, during the period she served at this government office, even as a deputy chair, she was never able to generate such reports, while adding that the only sector allowed to access such information was the IT department.
In addition, Katiaj added that the way the leaked report was formulated indicates that the data was most probably generated by an IT employee from the system, where citizens declare their monthly income tax contributions.
“Each business declares its information according to their personal NIPT number. Meanwhile, the IT department has access to all the collected data from all subjects in the country,” – added the former deputy chair, according to whom there was definitely malicious intent amongst the buyers of this database.
“An even stronger system of surveillance needs to be put in place by the institution that owns and operates the system as well as the ones responsible for its maintenance,” – urged Katiaj.
In addition, the former chair said that these public institutions are obligated to periodically compile a list of the financial and fiscal information of citizens and businesses, but this should be done on a statistical bases, thus avoiding any kind of publication of data that involved taxpayer’s most sensitive information.
Katiaj added that there are several instruments that the government can implement in order to add formality on a national scale, when it comes to tax transcripts.
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