The former director of the State Tax Administration Agency, Soledad Fernández Doctor, has rejected that her recent resignation from the agency has any relation to the inspection of former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, clarifying that her intention to leave the position had been for "a long time before".
In her appearance before the Senate's investigation commission on SEPI, Fernández Doctor responded to the PP's questions, emphasizing that the matter linked to Zapatero "had nothing to do" with her decision to leave the Directorate of the Tax Agency.
Referring to this case, she defended that the Tax Agency had acted in accordance with its functions, recalling that there are issues that "are not so easy and that must be investigated," in reference to the checks carried out by the agency.
Despite this, she repeatedly invoked her duties of confidentiality to avoid answering several questions focused on former President of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the Senate commission on SEPI.
"There are many of the issues you are asking me about that, due to my confidentiality obligations required by Article 95.3 of the Tax Agency, I will not be able to answer," Soledad Fernández Doctor stated to the senators.
However, she admitted that this same provision contemplates certain exceptions, including parliamentary investigation commissions, as long as they concern individuals who hold or have held high-ranking positions and the commission's objectives cannot be achieved without that information.
"In this case, if these requirements are not met, I cannot bypass the confidentiality issues," the former director of the Tax Agency specified, adding that the data related to Zapatero is part of an ongoing judicial proceeding.
Discrepancy with the commission's lawyer
After her explanations, the commission's investigation lawyer intervened, who, "without intending to enter into a controversy with the witness," stated that, in his opinion, she would be authorized to answer certain questions.
"To the extent that that information affects people who have held positions in the General Administration of the State and that the information refers to them, it would indeed be obligatory, to the extent that we are before an investigative commission, to provide that information," the lawyer told the members of the commission.
In any case, the former director of the Tax Agency has warned of the risk of incurring a possible crime of disclosure of secrets if she were to provide any part incorporated into a criminal case, which is why she has reiterated that she is not going to "risk" violating the regulations.
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