Eskom is still struggling to recover billions of rands from companies such as the Guptas’ Trillian Management Consulting and Tegeta Exploration & Resources.
According to a presentation by Eskom CEO André de Ruyter to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Enterprises (SCO) on Monday, Eskom has not yet received anything from the R600 million he claims from Trillian or the R5 billion from Tegeta.
The R600m is part of Eskom’s payment of R1,6bn to Trillian in a contract with international consulting firm McKinsey.
Trillian entities were allegedly the local empowerment partners for the contract.
McKinsey has already repaid Eskom its R1 billion plus interest in 2018.
Eskom and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) have jointly applied for Trillian to be liquidated.
De Ruyter says it remains to be seen how much money Eskom will recover, given that SARS also has claims against this company.
As for Tegeta, the R5bn claim is related to a coal contract that was concluded years ago, but which the High Court declared invalid earlier this year. This contract was signed in March 2015 and was initially worth R3.7 billion.
De Ruyter says it now looks like they will only recover about R1.24bn from the R5bn.
Eskom is not just demanding money from these two companies.
Other claims include the following:
* Deloitte
Eskom originally sued Deloitte for R207m for contracts not properly awarded in 2016. Eskom and Deloitte settled in March. Deloitte paid R171m.
* PwC
In April, Eskom brought a R95m claim against the audit firm. Eskom says, just as in the case of Deloitte, that money was paid to PwC illegally. Although the power giant has already sent a letter to PwC demanding the money, he has not been able to start legal action due to the state of restriction.
* FIG
Eskom apparently wants to get money back from ABB, a Swiss company that supplies equipment. This comes after there were irregularities with a contract that was granted to this company. Eskom does not say how much money he claims.
* Wilge housing project
As part of the construction of the Kusile power plant, Eskom built houses for workers. Due to negligence by the general manager responsible for facilities in this project, Eskom lost about R76 million. Eskom is now demanding the full amount of the employee who has since been fired.
* Meagra Transport
Meagra submitted fraudulent invoices worth R35 million for the transport of coal between 2016 and 2018. Eskom received R3 million at this stage, but also wants to recover the rest. De Ruyter points out that the former owner of Meagra and a former Eskom employee are charged with 53 fraud charges.
* Africawide Consulting
The company was awarded a contract worth R9 million without following the necessary processes. In addition, the value of the contract was increased to R17 million without the Treasury’s approval. Eskom is now demanding the full amount back from Africawide.
* Impulse International
De Ruyter says only Eskom instructed its lawyers to “fully recover” the amounts of “all the contracts awarded to Impulse”.
Eskom has granted R1 billion bids to Impulse. At that stage Matshele Koko was Eskom’s head of generation. His stepdaughter, Koketso Choma, was a non-executive director of Impulse.
Koko resigned before Eskom could launch a disciplinary hearing against him.
When all the amounts are added together, Eskom claims more than R7 billion from these nine companies.
At that stage, however, he had recovered only R174m. This is the R171 million from Deloitte and the R3 million from Meagra.
Members of Scoor went crazy and asked when Eskom would start criminal charges against all parties involved.
EFF MP Veronica Mente says that when working with taxpayers’ money, then full responsibility must be taken. The money should not only be claimed, but all offenders should be prosecuted.
