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Cape Town – South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane reiterated in a letter to Parliament that he is “dissatisfied” with the way auditing firm KPMG handled its investigative report into the so-called SARS rogue unit.
Moyane’s letter was addressed to Yunus Carrim, chair of the standing committee on finance.
Earlier Carrim advised Moyane that Parliament would discuss the annual reports of SARS and National Treasury on Thursday, and invited the SARS commissioner to raise the KPMG matter during that meeting “within the limits of the rules and norms” of Parliament.
In his letter to Carrim, Moyane included correspondence received from law firm Norton Rose Fulbright on behalf of KPMG International, informing him that part of the investigative report could no longer be relied upon, as KPMG South Africa had “failed to appropriately apply quality controls in preparing the report”.
KPMG on September 15 admitted failing to “appropriately apply” its own risk management and quality controls to the SARS report. It said the report's conclusions, recommendations and legal opinions could no longer be relied on.
Moyane subsequently held a media briefing, saying that SARS would be taking legal action against KPMG, following its decision to retract parts of its report.
Moyane called KPMG’s announcement a “dismal attempt” to portray SARS and its leadership as incompetent, corrupt and inefficient.
He maintained that the original KPMG report was not flawed. “In fact, the report confirms conclusively, deeply so, that there is prima facie wrong doing in this organisation. There were people involved in serious problems not tax related,” said Moyane at the time.
David Maynier, DA spokesperson on finance, said in a statement on Monday that it appeared from the commissioner's letter he wanted Parliament’s finance oversight committee to “scrutinise” KPMG International’s handling of the SARS 'rogue unit' controversy.
According to Maynier, the committee should rather scrutinise SARS’ handling of the 'rogue unit', and he has therefore requested that Carrim schedule public hearings into the matter.
“It’s time for the standing committee on finance to step up and fulfil its constitutional obligation to scrutinise the controversy surrounding the SARS 'rogue unit', which it has failed to do for years in Parliament,” Maynier said.
Meanwhile, the standing committee will on Tuesday receive input from the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors on its investigations into conduct by KPMG and auditing giant Deloitte.
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