KPMG Agrees To Compensate SARS Officials Over Widely Discredited 2014 ‘Rogue Unit’ Report

KPMG South Africa chairperson Wiseman Nkuhlu has confirmed that the audit firm will pay damages to SARS employees who were affected by the rogue report the company published in 2014.

The audit firm was hired to conduct a forensic investigation into the High-Risk Investigations Unit (HRIU) within the revenue service and the report it produced suggested that the unit was using illegal methods.

This led to the dismissal of dozens of senior SARS employees.

Around 45 people were affected by the report.

The report was later found to be incorrect and KPMG will now pay damages to all those who are said to have been traumatised by the event.

In September 2014, group executive Johan van Loggerenberg, who headed the High Risk Investigative Unit (HRIU), as it was known, was suspended, followed by Deputy Commissioner Ivan Pillay on 5 December 2014.

This decision was later overturned by the Labour Court