The South African Revenue Services (SARS) has confirmed that is has suspended three employees from within the IT department.
Ken Jarvis, SARS CIO, is unable to confirm whether the suspensions are in connection with the desktop hardware tender corruption claims. "Charges have not yet been laid against three individuals and the investigation needs to take its course," he says.
He confirmed that one of the suspended employees was a senior manager within the SARS IT shop.
On 6 October, SARS announced that it was cancelling a R100 million tender for the supply of desktop hardware, after it had received evidence of extensive tampering in the process. One of the bidders had reported to the SARS anti-corruption hotline (0800 00 28 70) an attempt at corruption. An outside agency had requested a commission of 2.5% of the final value of the tender for swinging the selection in the company's favour.
SARS staff members attempting to uphold the integrity of the tender process then received telephonic death threats, after which the entire process was derailed and an internal investigation involving the South African Police Services was launched.
The tendering process was restarted, but Pravin Gordhan, SARS commissioner, vowed to find those responsible.
"Businesses should realise that if they want to do business with SARS, or with government in general, that they have to get their acts together," he said. "We reiterate all the time that integrity is of the utmost importance and if people want business from us, they will have to become our partners against corruption."
Related stories:
SARS takes swift action after corruption tip-off
Threats, corruption derail R100m SARS tender
SARS vows to crack tender tampering plot
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