A SARS official has confirmed that his embattled chief officer Jonas Makwakwa received a R930,000 bonus before he was suspended last year.
The Daily Maverick reported last week that Makwakwa, who is the Chief Officer of Business and Individual Taxes, received the bonus in the 2016/2017 financial year, despite working for only six months before being suspended on allegations of corruption and money laundering.
SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane, who was briefing Parliament's standing committee on finance on SARS' annual financial report on Tuesday, initially denied Makwakwa received the bonus.
However, a SARS official, who attended the briefing with Moyane, clarified that the bonus was received.
Makwakwa was suspended in September last year amid investigations regarding financial transactions into his personal bank account that had been red-flagged by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).
He was after suspicious amounts appeared in the accounts of Makwakwa and his girlfriend to the tune of R1.3 million.
He returned to SARS earlier this month after the revenue service said a disciplinary hearing had concluded that he was not guilty.