WILLEMSTAD - An employee of the tax authorities has removed the tax debt of a Curaçao company from the records of the tax authorities without complying with the procedures. The erased debts amount to more than 300,000 guilders.
Finance Minister Javier Silvania announced in the evening news of TV Direct that an in-depth investigation is being launched into the employee. The Stichting Overheidsaccountantsbureau (SOAB) will also check how the civil servant has behaved over the past five years.
The minister assumes that fraud has been committed more often. "Because if someone just presses a button and cancels a customer's debt, we can assume that this has happened more than once," he said during the broadcast.
The head of the Tax Department informed Silvania of the matter after the internal investigation was completed. He then decided to have SOAB investigate the irregularities further. The minister expects a report at the beginning of the new year and will look at what measures will be taken then.