SARS Commission of Inquiry resumes

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) Commission of Inquiry will resume on Tuesday morning in Pretoria.

Former partner of Bain & Company, Vittorio Massone is to take the witness stand.

Mossone was recently relieved from his position following his testimony which revealed that the agency followed an irregular tender process to win the restructuring work at SARS.

Bain’s operating model is alleged to have dismantled key units and destroyed efficiencies at the revenue collector, which has led to the loss of skilled staff.

The inquiry was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to probe tax administration and governance matters at SARS under suspended SARS commissioner Tom Moyane’s leadership between 2014 and 2018.

The Commission is chaired by retired judge Robert Nugent and is sitting for the final week of public hearings.

Appearing before the SARS inquiry last month Massone revealed that SARS paid the agency R164 million for the work which was initially supposed to cost R2 million.

In a recent statement, Bain announced that it had elected to relieve Massone from his duties to allow him time to focus on cooperating with the inquiry.

Bain’s global board said that it would also set aside the R164 million it received for the operating model it introduced at SARS.

It said the money would be used as prescribed by the Nugent Commission of Inquiry.

However, in the absence of such prescription the money would be used for the benefit of South Africa.

The commission is expected to produce an interim report sometime this month.

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