There are a group of three dozen judges who did not receive this month’s salary and allowances for a computer system failure. The problem may have been related to an intrusion by the Instituto de Informática das Finanças into the system, during the payroll processing operation.
Those responsible for the Ministry of Justice classify the episode as a regrettable failure, adding that the situation is in the process of being repaired.
“For reasons unknown, and unrelated to DGAJ [Direcção-Geral da Administração Judiciária], it is confirmed that the computer system did not process the salaries of 19 judges and the compensation allowance for another 12, in a universe of more than 4,000 salaries processed monthly ”, clarified the office of Minister Alberto Martins, in response to a request for clarification by the Público newspaper.
Despite the «unknown reasons» formally invoked to justify the failure, everything indicates that the problem may have been related to an intrusion by the Finance Informatics Institute into the system during the Ministry of Justice’s salary processing operation.
Having access to the systems of other ministries, the entrance of the Institute of Informatics of Finance will have had the effect of interrupting the ongoing process. Thus it is justified that the failure reached only a limited group of magistrates, all of them from the judiciary and with order numbers followed, writes Público.
