Gigaba needs to set record straight on Sars’ troubles

It is no secret that the South African Revenue Service (Sars), for many years hailed as the definitive example of how a government department should be run, is in dire trouble.

This was exacerbated on Monday by the news that the of head of strategic portfolio management, George Frost, and head of enterprise quality management, James Matthews, had resigned.

This brings to 41 the skilled senior staff who have left since the much-criticised Tom Moyane, a staunch apostle of President Jacob Zuma, was appointed commissioner in 2014.

It is also a further blow to any momentum new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba might have hoped to gather in his nascent portfolio.

It adds a new blow to the tax brain drain since senior audit manager Lorraine van Esch quit in February, leaving behind her unfinished cases involving audits against Zuma family-linked company Mpisi Trading, megarich billionaire tenderpreneurs the Mpisanes, EFF leader Julius Malema, investor fraudster Gary van der Merwe and the Prasa tax audit.

Add to this that in the year to March 2017, Sars collected R1.144 trillion, which was R30 billion below the 2016 budget speech forecast.

It is time for Gigaba to stand tall on Sars and set the record straight.

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