Operations dealing with large multinational businesses at the South African Revenue Service (Sars) have been compromised.
The revenue collector’s Large Business Centre (LBC) was just one of the units that were crippled after now-suspended commissioner Tom Moyane rolled out his new operations model in 2015.
This is according to a number of current and former Sars staff and representatives of professional institutions who testified before Judge Robert Nugent’s commission of inquiry into tax administration and governance issues on Thursday.
The LBC deals with the tax affairs of high-profile multinational consortiums who are based in, and have operations, in SA.
According to Nishana Gosai, who resigned as manager of the transfer pricing unit within the LBC in 2016, Moyane’s new model resulted in a “paralysis in decision-making” at the unit.
“It (the unit) ensured quality because you always had one very skilled person leading the audit. It ensured skills transfer ... The impact of living out the transition phase of the new operations model was that we experienced almost a paralysis in decision-making. I was at my wits’ end,” she told the commission.
