Sars Is A Mess Thanks To Tom Moyane. Here`s How He Did It.

Source: Pieter Du Toit, 26/06/2018

1. Moyane damaged SARS`s reputation right from the start

Less than a month after Moyane`s arrival at SA Revenue Service (SARS)
headquarters in Brooklyn, Pretoria, the Sunday Times published the
first in a series of false reports about a so-called `rogue unit`
operating illegally within SARS. Moyane, new in his job, jumped into
action and suspended all and sundry without answering any queries from
his own management team. Any effort by his senior executives to
attempt to protect SARS`s reputation or to respond to the Sunday Times
was thwarted by Moyane, who seemed content to let the stories and
leaks engulf the organisation. When an exasperated Adrian Lackay
confronted him after the umpteenth Sunday Times `exposé` he told
Lackay his job at SARS was to `clear the air`.

2. Moyane destroyed SARS`s enforcement capabilities

With the departure of group executive for tax and customs enforcement
and investigations, Johann van Loggerenberg, and his colleagues, five
specialised and highly skilled units were disbanded: National
Projects, which investigated underworld figures, such as Mark Lifman,
Lolly Jackson and Radovan Krecjir, and the illegal cigarette trade;
Central Projects, which investigated Dave King, a billionaire
businessman who battled Sars for 13 years over a tax bill of more than
R3-billion, Zuma friend Robert Huang and Julius Malema; the Tactical
Intervention Unit, which covered border posts; the High-Risk
Investigations Unit, which worked on high-risk projects alongside
sister units; and the Evidence Management and Technical Support Unit,
which consisted of world-class forensic and IT laboratories, as well
as tax, customs, audit and other experts.

3. Moyane broke what was working

In late 2014, months after he arrived, he appointed consultants Bain
and Co. as well as Gartner Inc. to review SARS`s operating model. This
entailed a massive overhaul of the organisation. Moyane, seemingly
empowered by presidential fiat, even ignored then-minister of finance
Pravin Gordhan`s requests to desist from his plans until Treasury
could study the potential impact. Inexplicably, Bain even recommended
that one of SARS`s success stories, the Large Business Centre, be
restructured. Moyane also sought to clear out the upper decks of
SARS`s leadership, appointing 45 new executives in a year. But by
February 2016, more than 50 executives had left, taking along with
them institutional knowledge and experience of tax collection and
enforcement to the private sector. This year, government has a
R50-billion hole in its budget after revenue came up short. It`s a
problem.

4. The Makwakwa cover-up

On May 17, 2016, Moyane received a report from the Financial
Intelligence Centre (FIC) detailing alleged fraud and corruption by
his second-in-command, Jonas Makwakwa and his partner, Kelly-Ann
Elskie, who also works at SARS. Moyane never laid a complaint with the
Hawks, and only suspended Makwakwa four months later, in September
2016. At the time there was no indication that the Hawks were
investigating Makwakwa, and Moyane showed no urgency in dealing with
the matter in terms of anti-corruption legislation.

5. A soft landing for an alleged money-launderer

Makwakwa was suspended on full pay for a year, before he returned to
SARS after being exonerated by an internal investigation and
disciplinary hearing. The terms of reference for the investigation
into Makwakwa, conducted by law firm Hogan Lovells, were seemingly
watered down to allow Moyane`s man to escape censure. It originally
included quite serious investigations into tax evasion and receipts of
dodgy payments, but eventually eschewed the question of the payments
identified by the FIC. And, as Moyane said on Wednesday, after
Makwakwa`s resignation: `He regards this as being an opportune moment
for him to exit SARS after being cleared of all the allegations of
misconduct through a formal disciplinary hearing.` No harm, no foul?