Nosy civil servant

Informer affair remains without further consequences

In the Innviertel region, a tax official was very interested in illegally inspecting other people's tax assessments.

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

Apparently out of pure curiosity, a tax official and ÖVP politician in the Innviertel region checked hundreds of tax assessments from family members, friends, acquaintances and political rivals. She lost her seat on the local council for this abuse of office and the public prosecutor's office closed the investigation.

Exactly 6480 euros in fines and the loss of her political offices as a local party leader of the ÖVP and local councillor cost a tax official from the district of Ried/I. her particularly pronounced curiosity. She reportedly accessed tax assessments of her husband, her work colleague, her brother-in-law, the mayor and political competitors over 100 times from her work computer.

The public prosecutor's office was also familiar with the case. However, after the penalties were paid, they refrained from opening further investigations.

Interesting justifications
What remains of the spying affair are the official's justifications. For example, why she was so interested in her husband's data: it was simply more practical and quicker to retrieve the relevant data during her working hours. This was also because, after an eight-hour day at home, she did not want to start the computer again to carry out the relevant queries.

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Mit Neugier Schaden angerichtet

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Alexander Schwarzl, Markus Wenzel)

A tax official and politician from the Innviertel region was very interested in the tax assessments of her husband, her work colleague, the mayor and other politicians. She was obviously just satisfying her curiosity with the illegally obtained data.

No big deal, you might think. Not at all. Although the allegations were serious, she waited until the end to withdraw from politics, only initiating this after a discussion with the district party leadership. This clinging to political office is the great damage of this affair.