‘Bring back purged employees to Sars’
THE Nugent Commission has recommended to President Cyril Ramaphosa to instruct the new SA Revenue Service commissioner to recruit its former employees who “were purged” during the tenure of former Sars boss Tom Moyane.
The government has already started the process of appointing a new Sars commissioner and has placed various adverts in newspapers. The deadline for those interested in the job is January 19.
In a 200-page recommendation to Ramaphosa, the Nugent Commission has clearly spelt out some of the immediate tasks to be undertaken by the new commissioner.
The commissioner’s tasks include overseeing the establishment of an inspector-general and appointing an advisory executive committee that must include the deputy commissioner.
The commission has also recommended that all the Sars crime-fighting units that were formed during the tenure of former Sars boss Pravin Gordhan and his successor Oupa Magashula should be re-established.
Retired judge Robert Nugent recommended that the Large Business Centre be re-established as well as the Compliance Unit and the Integrity Unit. Earlier, during the hearings, the commission heard that Moyane had recommended dismantling these units, particularly the Large Business Centre, which was responsible for 30% of the country’s national revenue collection.
The Compliance Unit – comprising lawyers, auditors and accountants – was also disbanded, which allowed tobacco syndicates to continue selling illegal cigarettes on the market.
Nugent has also recommended that Sars re-establish the capacity to monitor and investigate illicit trade, in particular the trade in cigarettes.
The commission, during the hearings, heard that soon after Moyane’s appointment, the crime-fighting unit had been dubbed a “rogue unit” that was allegedly spying on former president Jacob Zuma. The commission also heard that Moyane obtained various legal opinions which found that the unit was operating lawfully, but he ignored them.
The commission also urged that the new commissioner evaluate employees in supernumerary posts and consider their placement in positions that would add the most value to Sars.
“It is recommended as well that posts in the establishment be evaluated and, where appropriate, active steps be taken to recruit former employees to those posts. It is further recommended that Sars considers possibilities for reparation, though not necessarily in pecuniary terms,” the commission recommended.
It has also recommended that the new commissioner should recruit one or more suitably qualified persons from within or outside Sars to be placed in a position to take control of Sars’ information technology and develop and implement a strategy to renew its development.
The commission has further recommended that Sars should file a civil suit against Moyane to recover all legal costs undertaken by him.