The revenue commissioner says they are shocked by the illegal conduct of the auditing firm and are now taking legal action in order to punish it.
South African revenue services head Tom Moyane has vowed to fight giant auditing firm KPMG till to the end after the company disputed a report into a ‘rogue unit’ allegedly operated by ex-finance minister Pravin Gordhan during the time he was heading the revenue authority.
Moyane addressed journalists this week and vowed to take KPMG head-on.
“We have been completely taken aback by KPMG’s aberrant and unethical conduct,” Moyane said in Tshwane on Monday this week.
“KPMG unilaterally announced the purported withdrawal of its report despite the existence of a service level agreement governing the relationship between Sars and KPMG,” said Moyane.
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KPMG announced last week that they have withdrawn the 2015 report, saying it was flawed from the beginning.
The report detailed the existence of a spy unit inside the revenue services during the time when Gordhan was in charge of Sars and this unit allegedly spied on tax-payers and leaked confidential information.
The beleaguered auditing firm had various senior managers resigning a week ago after it appeared recently that the auditing firm did work for the controversial Gupta family.
The company has since announced it will donate the money earned during the time they were doing work for the Gupta to charity.
Moyane said KPMG’s “abhorrent, unethical and unprofessional conduct” has left Sars with no option but to:
– institute legal proceedings against the firm for” reputational damage to Sars”
– report KPMG to the relevant statutory audit bodies both locally and internationally
– report KPMG to the minister of finance “with the aim to blacklist KPMG for its unethical, unlawful, and illegal behaviour.”
(edited by MLM)
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