Damning report puts Sars spy unit in spotlight again

Cape Town - Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene and SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane should appear before Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance to be grilled on the so-called Sars rogue spy unit, Alf Lees, DA shadow deputy minister of finance said on Sunday.

His call follows reports in Sunday newspapers of a damning KPMG report on this unit.

READ: Moyane refuses to answer MPs' questions on SARS 'rogue unit'

City Press reported on Sunday that the KPMG investigation into alleged irregularities and misconduct within Sars has made a number of damning findings against former acting head Ivan Pillay, his predecessor Oupa Magashula, and former executive Johann van Loggerenberg.

Former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and representatives of Pillay and Van Loggerenberg, told City Press they know nothing of the report’s contents and were never called to make representations to KPMG.  

The Sunday Times reported that the KPMG report reveals that Sars had spent more than R106m in taxpayers' money running this covert unit and lied to the public about its existence. The newspaper said agents of the unit were referred to as "ghost employees" and unlawfully intercepted and recorded communications of taxpayers.

The newspaper reported that the report recommends that Gordhan should face a probe into whether he knew of the rogue unit.

"There is undoubtedly an urgent need to fully and publicly investigate the role played in the Sars rogue spy unit by the finance minister and Sars commissioner, as well as the full operations of the unit. The integrity of Sars must be restored in order to protect its ability to competently collect revenue," Lees said with reference to the KPMG report on the spy unit.

He claimed Moyane had made considerable efforts to deflect attempts by the DA to have the report tabled for consideration by the Standing Committee on Finance.

"Moyane did this by obfuscating that the report was a draft report, that it had been referred to the finance minister and that it bizarrely did not form part of the Sars mandate, despite having been commissioned by Moyane himself," said Lees.

The DA now plans to write to the chair of the Standing Committee on Finance Yunus Carrim to call on him to require Nene and Moyane to appear before the committee before the end of November 2015 to brief the committee on the KPMG report.