Pretoria - Two senior officials in the procurement department of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) in Brooklyn, Pretoria, have been implicated in a corruption scandal that has hit the taxman.
The Pretoria News can confirm that one of the two officials, who cannot be named yet, has already been suspended.
The second is still at work. He is a board member of a company that has been doing business with Sars for five years. The company provides professional expertise on organisations involved in purchasing as well as supply chain management.
This emerged from an investigation, following up on information from whistle-blowers at Sars, who said it was time the rot at the taxman became public.
When contacted for comment, Sars could not deny or confirm the allegations, but said these were internal matters between the employer and its employees.
The official on suspension had been on special leave for about a month.
But last week, the special leave was turned into a suspension and another official placed in an acting role until the matter had been resolved.
The Pretoria News has seen documents showing procurement of services to a company, which cannot be named as this would reveal the identity of the official, dating back to 2010.
This is despite the fact that a senior procurement official at Sars doubles up as a board member of that company and has been publicly listed as such on its website.
Just how he managed to evade a vetting process undertaken by Sars, where employees were required to declare their interests outside the taxman’s jurisdiction remains a mystery, said staff members who spoke on condition anonymity.
According to the insiders, the process was very thorough. In the event of a conflict of interest, staffers were often made to decide whether to remain within the employment of Sars or their other interests.
But the official somehow managed to keep both jobs.
Some documents and correspondence on a tender awarded to the company showed Sars requesting exemption from procurement processes to justify why it was doing business with the company.
In one such letter, dated February 18, 2010, the company was awarded a contract valued at R300 000, and another amounting to R612 500 two years later.
Sars spokesman Luther Lebelo refused to shed any light on the matter, saying: “Unless otherwise, Sars cannot comment on the internal disciplinary hearings of its employees.
“This is in order to preserve its employees’ right to privacy and confidentiality.”
Lebelo further said based on the information before Sars, that there was no reason to doubt the fairness and integrity of the process followed in appointing the referred suppliers, including managing conflict of interest between supplier and employees of Sars.
“But we wish to reiterate that should any evidence which may come to light, be contrary to the information we hold, Sars will not hesitate to act swiftly on those implicated in any wrongdoing,” Lebelo said.
Pretoria News