Johannesburg - The troubled South African Revenue Service has denied purging senior officials in the organisation following a spate of resignations, and promised strong financial performance next month when Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene releases tax collection results for the financial year.
Sars commissioner Tom Moyane assured MPs on Wednesday that everything was under control at the tax-collecting agency and the organisation was stable.
Moyane and Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas told MPs they would not be able to table the Sikhakhane report into the rogue unit at Sars that targeted politicians and other individuals. But Jonas also told members of the standing committee on finance that the report, which recommended the dissolution of the rogue unit, would be submitted in Parliament once other processes had been concluded.
These include the review of Sars’s organisational structure by consulting and technology firms Bain & Company and Gartner Incorporated, the forensic audit by KPMG and a review panel led by Judge Frank Kroon.
Moyane said the resignation of top Sars officials had nothing to do with him. When he was appointed to the position late last year, there were already processes under way.
He denied claims from MPs that there had been purges at the agency. Six top officials have either resigned or been suspended for various alleged offences.
Moyane said Sars was working towards delivering strong performance on tax collection when Nene announces the results next month.
They want to meet the target set by Nene in his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament last October.
Nene said they projected a tax revenue collection of R979 billion for the current financial year.
In his address to the standing committee on Tuesday, Nene said Sars was not about individuals, but a collective leadership. This was reiterated by Moyane in his opening remarks to the standing committee on Wednesday.
He said they were confident they would meet the revenue collection target for 2014-15.
When asked by MPs to disclose the Sikhakhane report, Jonas said they would not deal with issues piecemeal. They wanted all the investigations and reviews under way to be concluded.
He added that all the details would be made available at that time, including questions by MPs on who paid for the rogue unit, called the National Research Group.
DA MP Dion George said that while Sars had been the government’s crown jewel for its clean image, its name was now sullied. George said they must get to the bottom of the situation at Sars.
“What we must do in this committee, which we have often been told, is to exercise oversight over Sars, because if we don’t, we won’t be able to collect the revenue the way we should. Our deficit of R162bn is going to go up and our economy will wobble,” George said.
He called for a commission of inquiry into Sars’s affairs.
But ANC MP Makhosi Khoza said they did not want to have the same situation repeated at Sars. “Chair, Sars remains a world-class organisation. But being world class does not denote the state of perfection. We are all in pursuit of that perfection,” she added.
The Star