Sars e-filing ‘will crash in two years’

A SENIOR SA Revenue Service (Sars) official, Andre Rabie, has warned that the e-filing tax system will crash in the next two-years unless urgent measures are undertaken to recall Barry Hore – who masterminded the IT system dubbed modernisation.

Rabie made the call during the conclusion of his testimony before the Nugent Commission tasked to probe administration and governance at Sars since suspended commissioner Tom Moyane took over in 2014.

Moyane allegedly scrapped an IT system which was introduced by former commissioner Pravin Gordhan in 2007 while still at the helm. Witnesses testified that the modernisation programme improved Sars’ IT system including capturing data of all taxpayers including big business and multinational companies.

According to Rabie, a newsflash announcement on December 12, 2014 – three months after Moyane’s appointment – marked the end of the modernisation project.

Yesterday, Sue Burger, a senior project manager at Sars gave shocking details of Moyane’s decision to end the system and its impact on her unit.

Burger said Moyane’s decision placed more than R66 million worth of projects at risk.

Yesterday, three witnesses painted a worrying picture about how Moyane allegedly collapsed IT systems, customs enforcement measures and nearly scrapped the e-filing tax system – few months after taking over.

According to Burger, Sars at the beginning of each year, under the modernisation project, adopted an annual performance plan to improve revenue collection and to implement any new legislation.

She said all the units worked as a team and had regular meeting to assess their achievements and failures. The commission heard that this continued until September 2014 when Moyane took over.

According to Burger and others who testified that their troubles began on December 12, 2014 after the scrapping of the modernisation project.

“We were not consulted about it. The decision placed more than R66m worth of projects at risk. It was just like the curtain fall,” Burger said.

She said Moyane then introduced a new IT Gartner to set up a new IT system in place.

Gartner is one of the companies the National Treasury has compiled a dossier on that it was paid more than R200m without proper procurement processes.

The hearing continues.