Top Treasury officials to testify at commission

THE Nugent Commission probing tax administration and governance at the SA Revenue Service (Sars) will today hear evidence from National Treasury’s deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat and other officials in the Treasury.

Momoniat is expected to give the commission, chaired by retired Judge Robert Nugent, details of the working relationship between Treasury and Sars, especially with the office of suspended commissioner Tom Moyane.

On Friday, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene is expected to give details about his relationship with Moyane in 2015, while Nene was serving as finance minister before former president Jacob Zuma recalled him in December that year.

Malusi Gigaba, former finance minister now home affairs minister, and Judge Dennis Davis are also due to testify on Friday.

The hearings tomorrow will focus on consulting agency Bain Consulting, which had been appointed by Moyane in his bid to restructure operations at Sars. Moyane was appointed as commissioner in September 2014 and, in 2015, he contracted Bain Consulting to introduce a new operating model at Sars.

According to evidence before the commission, Moyane paid millions to Bain Consulting but he never implemented their recommendations, and instead implemented a new operating model whose creators are still not known by the commission.

Earlier, Judge Nugent said he wanted to know who created the adopted new operating model, which led to the alleged collapse of revenue collection and compliance systems at Sars.