By Staff Writer
The Ministry of Customs and Revenue CEO Matafeo Ms. Avalisa Viali- Fautua’alii is wrestling with more than just catching the person or people behind the snatching act of work papers buried in rubbish bags at the Tafaigata landfill over a week ago.
The police has been called in on a serious attempt to find out more beyond the rubbish snatching act.
Answers are wanted on how the papers were photographed and uploaded on social media.
There are strong suspicions that it was a deliberate attempt to incriminate the Ministry in a criminal act of destroying evidence of suspected wrongdoing.
A conspiracy twist to the suspected covert action are of alleged reports for the police to investigate, that the bags were dug up and handed to a waiting car outside the Tafaigata landfill.
CEO Matafeo confirmed that the papers sent to the landfill were from the special bins set aside for printouts that needed corrections or did not print right.
“The information on these discarded printouts are part of normal office work but sometimes the contents are restricted and not for everyone to see so they are put in these special bins to be disposed with care,” Matafeo explained.
“These ‘confidential waste documents’ were used by officers during their reviews, amendments, reconciling and testings, reassessment and drafting works and therefore were not required to be filed as records but are stored in our ‘confidential waste bins,’ CEO Matafeo explained in an official statement.
The unwanted papers were collected from printouts, photocopies, draft letters with tax payers , internal memorandums on work matters plus more.
The confidential waste bags publicly posted and shared on Facebook, was part of the confidential rubbish that were sent to be disposed off at the Tafaigata landfill on Thursday 10th June 2021.
“In the presence of various officials, ten (10) confidential rubbish bags were buried deep into the landfill,” CEO Matafeo continued in her statement.
“Sadly and unfortunately, some of these ‘confidential rubbish’ were presumably dug up and illegally removed from the disposal site by someone and later posted on the Facebook.”
Matafeo vehemently denied claims by those who circulated the photos of the papers on Facebook that they fell of the trucks while on the way to the landfill.
“These information were not found on the roadside as inaccurately reported on Facebook.
“The continuous strict protection of taxpayers information is paramount to the Ministry as these are considered ‘confidential information’ under section 9 of the Tax Administration Act 2012.
“A breach of this section is considered an offence and faces not only monetary penalty but also imprisonment term. Given the seriousness of the act to remove our ‘confidential rubbish’ illegally from the disposal site, we have now lodged a complaint to the Ministry of Police and an investigation is now ongoing.
“I now seek the public’s support in making sure all posts containing photos of these waste documents with our Ministry’s logo and name on it, are removed from Facebook by either: deleting the post(s), report post and cease sharing or forwarding those photos. “
