Disciplinary cases to be launched against three Revenue Service in the wake of information leak

(LETA) - In the wake of the massive data leak from the State Revenue Service's Electronic Declaration System (EDS), the Revenue Service has decided to open disciplinary cases against three officials at the organization's Information Management Department, including the department's head, Iveta Bertulsone, as well as launch probes into four other department employees' actions.

The Revenue Service's Communication Department informed LETA that the disciplinary cases against Bertulsone and her two deputies, Viesturs Skils and Juris Stumps, were pending and would be opened in the near future.

The three civil servants are accused of poor quality administration of the database and insufficient testing, supervision and analysis of the database, as well as insufficient measures to protect it.

Another four employees at the Information Management Department will have their actions investigated on the same charges.

The four employees include Jurijs Smirnovs, senior employee at the Information Management Department, Database Administration Unit's head Inga Cinciusa, System Application Software Maintenance Unit's chief expert Edgars Kacerovskis and Database Administration Unit's chief expert Kirils Ruskulis.

As the Revenue Service informs, the Revenue Service's acting chef, Nelija Jezdakova, has approved the investigative commission's report as well as the commission's suggestion to launch disciplinary cases against the three Information Management Department officials and the probes into the work of the other four employees at the department.

The official investigation committee started to work on February 12, and handed in its conclusions to Jezdakova on March 1.

On the other hand, the Finance Ministry's security breach commission has established that the data leak from the EDS was possible because of an error, and that the Revenue Service can bring a civil suit against the company "Dati Exigen Group", the developer of the EDS. The Finance Ministry recommends the Revenue Service to revise its contract with "Dati Exigen Group" on the maintenance and upgrading of the EDS.

The commission also offers a number of suggestions to prevent similar incidents in the future, including adequate resources for system maintenance, security audits and others.

"In this situation, it is very important to thoroughly evaluate responsibility or irresponsibility of the Revenue Service employees who are in charge of information technologies and data systems," stressed the Finance Minister Einars Repse (New Era).

Danute Tomsone LETA

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