But Moyane’s wholesale restructuring in 2014‚ apparently at the advice of consultancy firm Bain & Company‚ saw the revenue contribution of the LBC slip from 34.8% in 2015 to 32.2% in 2017. It also saw the highly-skilled staffers at the unit scattered‚ and many others resigned.

Former SARS group executive Randall Carolissen told the inquiry last week that the LBC was “fragmented”‚ and its pieces placed under another division‚ Business and Individual Taxes (BAIT)‚ headed by Makwakwa.

“The LBC is no longer a segmented specialised unit. It is now‚ as I said earlier‚ split across enforcement‚ stakeholder management‚ legal‚ BAIT and some parts in strategy.

“So a number of people raised concern about the disappearance‚ the complete fragmentation of the LBC‚ given the strength of its revenue generating…A number of us raised concern about the concentration of power in BAIT‚” Carolissen said.

“Then the general state of health of an organisation is measured by its debt book and its credit book. Since roughly about 2015‚ the debt book has soared 50% from about R85-billion to R135-billion‚ and most of those debts are in the LBC environment.”

One of the divisions in the LBC that suffered a detrimental blow was the transfer pricing unit. Nishana Gosai‚ who resigned as the unit’s manager in 2016‚ said she was never consulted when the new model was introduced.

“Out the transition phase of this new structure‚ we experienced almost a paralysis in decision-making. I was at my wits end‚” she told the commission.