The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is launching a major recruitment drive, targeting highly skilled workers to help build a data-driven ‘smart tax authority’ – which experts say is the first salvo into tackling wealthy taxpayers who may be avoiding their tax obligations.
The revenue service on Saturday (27 March) announced that it was looking to hire 370 highly skilled specialists, as well as 200 finance graduates to reinforce its capabilities – but with a particular focus on technology.
“SARS is preparing for a future where increasingly our work will be informed by data driven insights, self-learning computers, artificial intelligence and interconnectivity of people and devices,” it said.
“Mindful of this, we are evolving our workforce to prepare for this exciting changed and changing world of work. Whilst we continue to develop our own employees, we invite talented and passionate executives, who share our strong public service ethos and unmistakeable commitment to improving the material conditions and wellbeing of all South Africans.”
The group said that its ‘Vision 2024’ is to build a ‘smart modern tax authority’, looking for specialised skills in the following fields:
- IT specialists, including developers, database administrators, security and software engineers, SAP specialists and integration designers;
- Data management specialists, including data analysts and data scientists;
- Audit and risk specialists;
- Investigation specialists, especially criminal investigators and forensic auditors;
- Research analysts;
- Social scientists;
- Project leaders;
- Legal specialists; and
- Regulatory and risk specialists.
The 200 graduates it’s looking for are from the disciplines of tax, customs, legal, audit and chartered accounting (CA).
SARS is also looking for senior executives in several of these fields, including a chief technology and innovation officer, chief data scientist and a director for high wealth individuals.
The revenue service directed potential candidates to its recruitment page to apply.
