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Baker ‘incredibly annoyed’ by Revenue Dept. blunders

“I’m incredibly annoyed by all of the issues associated with the misrepresentation of information or, in some cases, the release of information that shouldn’t have been released,” Governor Charlie Baker told reporters at the State House on Thursday.Steven Senne/Associated Press

A day after revelations of more data snafus at the beleaguered state Department of Revenue, Governor Charlie Baker said Thursday that he was “incredibly annoyed” and “incredibly frustrated” by the cavalcade of troubles at the tax-collecting agency.

The department said Wednesday that the personal information of thousands of people who pay child support was inadvertently sent to companies that do not employ them, potentially revealing about 6,100 people’s Social Security numbers and wage information to those who should not have seen them.

Accenture, the company that designed and developed the state’s new child support system that went online in January, took responsibility for the mailing error.

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But the blunder added to the agency’s string of woes.

A data breach that made private information from about 39,000 business taxpayers visible to other firms, potentially including rivals, lasted from early August through Jan. 23, the agency has said.

Earlier this year, revenue officials acknowledged they had been alerted to that breach months before solving the problem, a shift from their initial claim that the issue was fixed hours after it was discovered.

And the agency acknowledged in March that it had failed to deliver timely child support payments to about 1,500 parents since the beginning of the year.

“I’m incredibly annoyed by all of the issues associated with the misrepresentation of information or, in some cases, the release of information that shouldn’t have been released,” Baker told reporters at the State House on Thursday.

The governor said Accenture is doing a “pretty intense” quality review of the work they’ve done for the agency — with state employees “looking over their shoulder.” Overall, he said, “I think it’s really important that DOR get this stuff right.”

But all is not trouble at the department.

Baker emphasized that the agency is processing tax returns and payments this year on a new system “that, for the most part, has worked pretty well.”

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And, he underscored, the agency continues this year to make payments to parents with custody of their kids, mostly moms.


Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com.