Question NW3373 to the Minister of Finance
19 December 2018 - NW3373
Mkhaliphi, Ms HO to ask the Minister of Finance
(a) What were the reasons for the purchase of a certain company (name furnished) by the SA Revenue Service (SARS), (b) who approved the purchase of the company and (c) what services did the company provide to SARS?
Reply:
a) SARS did not purchase a certain company (name furnished). A certain company (name furnished) was created and registered by SARS as a wholly owned State Owned Company (SOC) for the purpose of purchasing the business of Tatis Africa (Pty) Ltd and to employ the skilled staff of Tatis. Tatis Africa (Pty) Ltd subsequently changed its name to Tatis International (Pty) Ltd (Tatis), which comprised mainly of the intellectual property in the Tatis customs management solution software and its processes. A certain company (name furnished) also had to provide support and maintenance services to ADA (Luxembourg Customs), which at the time already had the software in operation. It was also intended to market the core customs solution through value-added resellers.
b) The Minister of Finance and Treasury approved the purchase of the business and assets of Tatis.
c) A certain company (name furnished) delivered the first phase of the modernisation programme to SARS in 2013, which is referred to as the iCBS (Interfront Customs and Border Management Solutions). It continued to support and maintain the iCBS, whilst at the same time adopting and modifying it by developing software for the new Customs Acts Programme.