Consultancy charged R200m for ‘failed’ work at Sars

However‚ on Tuesday‚ Lithgow complained that nothing Gartner had recommended was implemented at Sars. Gartner was paid R151-million for phase two of the project‚ which was essentially supposed to be the implementation phase.

‘‘I accept we failed because nothing we did was implemented‚ which for me is distressing. My confidence that even 10% of what we recommended was done is low‚’’ Lithgow said‚ adding that while he could justify Sars spending R200-million on the work‚ it did not deliver value for money. ‘‘Yes‚ as a professional‚ I am upset that the work did not deliver what we had hoped.’’

Lithgow largely blamed the Sars leadership at the time for this. He said he wrote a letter to Moyane and ‘‘made it clear that unless we had strong‚ committed leadership‚ the transformation process would not work’’. He said there was resistance to change within Sars‚ and there were also ‘‘fiefdoms and factions’’ and people ‘‘would not co-operate’’. 

He described one incident in which the Gartner team leader’s Facebook page was hacked and anti-Jacob Zuma posts were made on his timeline‚ dating back some years.

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