WILLEMSTAD - Alfonso Trona, the Director of the Tax Department, reported fraud in 2019. There would have been irregularities with payments of refunds of taxes and premiums.
According to Finance Minister Javier Silvania, there are two fraudsters related to Sta Maria's baseball team. The employees are said to have ties to his predecessor Kenneth Gijsbertha. He was president of the Sta Maria Pirates for a long time.
The minister indicates that two baseball players have been hired to work at the Tax Department without going through a selection procedure. The minister declared this during his intervention in parliament yesterday. Parliament met yesterday to discuss the discontinuation of cash payments at the Tax Department.
The five involved committed fraud 33 times. It concerns 381,410.92 guilders that they have deposited into a third account. Intentionally, an incorrect bank account number was given to the accountants of the Tax Department, as a result of which money was deposited illegally. Of the five fraudsters, one was a civil servant, two government contractors, one employee at the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) and the other was an SVB contractor.
The police officer working on this case had been suspended. There was no one else who could take over the investigation. Silvania indicates that it is now being examined whether there are officers who can continue the investigation. The minister did indicate that employees were already suspected or eligible for arrest. Due to the scant evidence, some of them were released.