Revenue auditors criticize STF action against civil servants: ‘Scapegoats’

The National Association of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue of Brazil (Unafisco) released a note in which it states that it views with “concern” the measures adopted by the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes against civil servants suspected of leaking tax data of relatives of members of the Court.

According to Unafisco, the investigations are still “preliminary” by the Federal Revenue itself and, therefore, it is necessary to respect due legal process and the presumption of innocence.

“Unafisco Nacional expresses concern about the adoption of serious precautionary measures against the Tax Auditor in a context still classified as preliminary analysis by the Federal Revenue itself”, says the note.

“The entity defends that any irregularities are rigorously investigated, but always in compliance with due legal process, the presumption of innocence and the proportionality of the measures adopted. The application of extreme precautionary sanctions requires robust reasoning and consistent evidentiary support”, he stated.

The agency recalls that there has been a previous case in which employees were punished who later proved innocent of the charges.

“In 2019, also using the Fakenews Inquiry, Minister Alexandre de Moraes removed two Tax Auditors accused of leaking tax information from relatives of STF ministers. The accusation was later shown to have no evidentiary basis, and the two Tax Auditors were reinstated.”

The case

This Tuesday morning (17), the Federal Revenue reported that it detected a breach of information from authorities protected by secrecy during the investigation.

The IRS has not officially specified whether the leaked data belongs to Supreme Court ministers and their relatives. However, Estadão found that there was a breach of tax secrecy by the wife of minister Alexandre de Moraes, Viviane Barci de Moraes, as well as the son of another minister of the Court. The information had first been released by the Metrópoles portal.

The Supreme Court reported that “several and multiple illicit accesses to the system of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Secretariat were discovered, followed by subsequent leaks of confidential information”.

The Court released the names of four public servants, from “the IRS itself or provided by other bodies”, suspected of illegally accessing the information: Luiz Antônio Martins Nunes, Luciano Pery Santos Nascimento, Ruth Machado dos Santos and Ricardo Mansano de Moraes.

The four investigated were removed from their duties and had their confidentiality broken (banking, tax and telematics). They are prohibited from leaving the cities where they live and are forced to stay at home at night and on weekends. The suspects had their passports withheld and are prohibited from leaving the country or entering Serpro (Federal Data Processing Service) and Revenue facilities.

For Unafisco, civil servants cannot be turned into “scapegoats” for institutional conflicts.

“Federal Revenue Tax Auditors cannot, once again, be turned into scapegoats in the midst of institutional crises or disputes that do not concern them”, says the text.

“The Federal Revenue is a State body and its employees cannot be subjected to public exposure or institutional constraints before the conclusion of the investigations”, he adds.