South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane seems to be embarking on a fishing expedition after an initial Grant Thornton preliminary forensic report on the tax authority’s modernisation and technology programme from 2007 to 2014, is understood to have been a damp squib. SARS has now approached the Treasury for a deviation to expand the scope of the investigation to "phase 2", which would extend the probe to 2005. Moyane has been sitting on the initial report for almost a year. The tax authority had budgeted R20m for the investigation — dubbed Project Lion — but is understood to be looking to spend an additional R50m on the second phase. Business Day understands that the deviation application has been turned down by the Treasury, but SARS would not confirm or deny this. The investigation into the modernisation programme has been interpreted widely as a fishing expedition against former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who, as SARS commissioner from 1999 to 2009, ove...
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