‘Probe Sars top brass’

Retired Judge Robert Nugent yesterday stressed that he recommended that a new South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner review the fitness of the organisation’s senior staff because they abjectly failed to challenge the improper conduct of sacked tax boss Tom Moyane.

“One had a period here in which we saw no sign other than compliance with what was happening at Sars,” Nugent, who headed the inquiry into tax administration that recommended Moyane’s dismissal, told parliament’s standing committee on finance in a briefing on his final findings made in December.

“We suggested the commissioner review his senior staff and determine whether there are people who can inspire public confidence in Sars.”

He said acting commissioner Mark Kingon appeared “rather hobbled” because he was not in a position to drive through major changes, such as updating the tax service’s technology, because he was on a 90-day contract and lacked trust.

“The acting commissioner is having a lot of difficulty with some of the people who have to be advising him,” he added.

Nugent also elaborated on the reasons his report calls for the National Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate whether Moyane should face fraud charges for making false representations that led to the appointment of Boston-based consultancy firm Bain & Co to draft a new business plan for the revenue service.

Nugent pointed to Moyane’s failure to inform then finance minister Malusi Gigaba that he had been in talks with Bain for about a year before he asked for outside advisors to be appointed.

“The letters written to the minister were positively misleading.”

Moyane on Tuesday suffered yet another legal setback in his attempts to overturn his firing by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the recommendation of Nugent, when the Constitutional Court denied him leave to appeal a court ruling dismissing an earlier challenge to his dismissal. – ANA