The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wishes to express its heartfelt congratulations to the outstanding recognition of its Head of Technology and Solutions Delivery (TSD), Mr Intikhab Shaik, for receiving the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) President’s Award as the Visionary Chief Information Officer of the Year.

What makes this prestigious accomplishment so noteworthy is that Mr Shaik’s work was compared against industry peers in both the private and public sectors. The determination that his performance is unmatched and stands head and shoulders above all others is a testament to the quality of his technology leadership. It was during the period of COVID-19 that the genius of Mr Shaik and his team shone the brightest.

SARS Commissioner Mr Edward Kieswetter, in acknowledging the public recognition of Mr Shaik, pointed out: “During the various levels of lockdown, Mr Shaik and his team designed and implemented more than 40 digital in-house solutions that enabled SARS to continue to deliver its services to taxpayers and to deliver on its core mandate of collecting all revenue due. The continued operation of SARS during this time, was measurably enabled through the enabling technology platform built by the TSD team under Intikhab’s leadership. This contributed measurably to the economy of the country functioning despite the severe restrictions imposed during COVID-19. We are immensely proud of this contribution and believe that this public recognition is well deserved.”

The capability of SARS to use data science, artificial intelligence and enabling technology innovation is best demonstrated by the implementation of auto-assessments that covered well over 4 million taxpayers. This is in line with the Strategic Intent to make compliance easy for honest taxpayers whilst making it hard and costly for this who seek to defraud the tax system.”

The exceptional achievement of the TSD team under the exemplary leadership of Mr Skaik, dovetails with the SARS Vision of building “a smart modern SARS with unquestionable integrity, trusted and admired. This is aligned with the collective orientation of the organisation to regard its contribution as a rare privilege in serving South Africa and all its people.

What makes this recognition encouraging, is that it has laid the foundation of SARS to develop an operating model based on automation, insights from data, in an empowering technology-enabled operating model. It is hoped that this system will be further developed to the point where interaction between SARS and all taxpayers and traders will happen digitally, automatically and seamlessly!

What Mr Shaik has achieved at SARS since he joined the organisation more than 30 years ago, speaks aptly to his ability to demonstrate personal and intellectual mastery in his field. It communicates his exceptional competence in how he manages his team to bring about the positive impact on his personal brand and the SARS brand and reputation. 

SARS is proud of Mr Shaik’s achievements for continuously improving the important interface between the organization and taxpayers and traders. The recognition he has achieved resoundingly confirms that industry players acknowledge the strides that SARS has made, notwithstanding the financial constrains that the organization faces. Hearty congratulations to Mr Shaik and the team.