Gordhan: SARS is a political project

Pravin Gordhan, who was ousted from his post as South Africa’s finance minister in March, slammed KPMG after it withdrew a report on the country’s tax agency that was used as evidence in a police probe against him and led to the removal of senior staff.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has been rocked by resignations of several senior executives since Tom Moyane was appointed as commissioner in 2014.

Moyane clashed with Gordhan when he halted a restructuring plan at SARS during his time as finance minister.

The nation’s revenue shortfall for the first quarter was R13.1bn.

It is part of “the whole conspiracy theory of replacing good people with bad to facilitate state capture,” Gordhan said by phone.

“SARS became a political project and it is now run by people who have no idea how to manage a tax administration system. They don’t know what skills are needed and how to use them.”

Gordhan, who led the revenue service from 1999 until 2009, wasn’t the only victim of the report.

He was investigated by police for his role in the setup of the investigative unit, although no charges were ever brought.

Former acting commissioner Ivan Pillay, Johann van Loggerenberg, a group executive for tax and customs and spokesperson Adrian Lackay all resigned from SARS in 2015 as the agency was probing the allegedly covert unit.

“The witting and over-enthusiastic collaboration of senior KPMG personnel and their collusion with nefarious characters in SARS, in fact directly contributed to 'state capture'," Gordhan said in a statement sent by text message on Friday

“It should and must be remembered that this was about attacking SARS as an institution with the main intention being to capture it.”

KPMG withdraws report

This comes after KPMG said on Friday that its conclusions and recommendations in a report for SARS about a unit that allegedly spied on politicians should no longer be relied on. It said the evidence provided to KPMG doesn’t support the interpretation that Gordhan knew, or ought to have known, that the unit was established and operating unlawfully.

“Very good people were severely intimidated due to the KPMG report,” Gordhan said by phone on Sunday.

“The withdrawal of the report does not even begin to make amends for that and the pain they have gone through. It is high time that business, and especially professional firms such as KPMG, learn how to apologise properly and tell the whole truth. I shall be meeting with my lawyers in two days to consider our next step.”

KPMG also said on Friday that its South African chief executive officer, chairperson and six other senior managers quit after an internal probe criticised the company’s conduct in auditing companies controlled by the Gupta family, who are friends of South African President Jacob Zuma.

Bell Pottinger, McKinsey

KPMG is the latest international company to come under fire for becoming embroiled in the nation’s politics.

British public relations firm Bell Pottinger applied for administration on September 12 after being expelled from a UK public relations body for stoking racial tensions in South Africa while working for the Guptas.

South African anti-corruption groups are targeting US consultancy McKinsey for doing work for businesses tied to the family.

KPMG said it has offered to repay the R23m fee it received for the work on the report to SARS, or make a donation to a charity.

SARS spokesperson Sandile Memela and KPMG spokesperson Nqubeko Sibiya both asked for queries to be sent by email when contacted for comment on their mobile phones on Sunday.

Neither immediately responded to the emails.

The auditing firm said on Friday that the errors in the report hadn’t been intentional and its actions weren’t politically motivated.

NEWS24