City Press reports that the SA Revenue Service (Sars) is still reeling from the rot brought about by its former commissioner, Tom Moyane.
Under his reign, more than 2,000 experts resigned within three years; another 550 retired without transferring their skills; and approximately 600 disciplinary processes to get rid of senior staff were started. Current Sars boss Edward Kieswetter revealed these disturbing details at the annual Tax Indaba, held last week. He said the rebuilding process to restore Sars to a world-class service, showing integrity and good corporate governance, was under way, but that this would take years of relentless hard work. Kieswetter, who took over as commissioner in May following Moyane’s axing, did not mince his words about the damage that had been wrought on the institution in terms of capacity, skills, its reputation and service delivery. This took place amid a state capture project that involved “deliberate acts of corruption” at the tax agency. Kieswetter said that Sars could only be rebuilt if there were honest revelations about the nature and the scope of the plunder, and if everyone – government, tax practitioners and taxpayers – worked together. The critical technical skills that Sars lost since 2014 were many and varied and included more than 100 investigators, 300 specialists in compliance audits, 250 professionals in debt management, more than 60 employees in trade administration and 113 people from the dismantled Large Business Centre (LBC).
- Read the full original of the above report by Riana De Lange at City Press
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