Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 02-09-2019
SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter has told Radio Islam he only experienced the full extent of the damage of the South African Revenue Service after he immersed himself into the tax collection agency.
SARS is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as it seeks to ramp up the process of ridding the institution of corruption.
Since taking office on 1 May, Kieswetter has vowed to clean up a tax service crippled by maladministration, which has caused revenue collection and tax morale to drop.
He took over from the agency’s interim commissioner Mark Kingon, who succeeded Tom Moyane who was fired in November 2018.
Kieswetter says there a number of challenges to rebuilding the institution.
“The damage is indeed deep and will take time to rebuild. And it’s not just about bringing skill into the organization, it’s also about recalibrating the culture and value system of integrity.”
Kieswetter says the first task is to rebuild confidence and trust in the leadership of SARS.
“People within Sars have over the period just lost confidence in the leader and they tell me so. Before you do any structural work, it’s important that we rebuild the soft social fibre, the emotion we intend to have in the organization. We can only do that by demonstrating authentically that we actually care about them.”
Addressing the 2019 Tax Indaba which was held in Sandton last week, Kieswetter said the success of the country’s revenue service was interlinked to the well-being of South Africa’s democracy.
Listen to the interview with Edward Kieswetter
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