The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has laid a criminal complaint with the police against former Eskom director, Mark Pamensky.
Outa chief operating officer Ben Theron on Tuesday said the charges related to Pamensky’s conduct while at Eskom and a business "linked to the Gupta business empire”.
”In his role as nonexecutive board member of various companies, Pamensky was the conduit for the flow of privileged information between the companies,” Theron alleged on Tuesday.
‘Pamensky further used his position and authority as non-executive board member on various boards to influence decisions and manipulate the outcomes of the various committees that he sat on.”
Outa said the case was opened in Pretoria and copies of Pamensky’s emails were attached to the affidavit as evidence.
The emails showed ”his enthusiasm” for the Gupta group’s purchase of Optimum Coal Holdings, which received substantial assistance from Eskom, he added.
Furthermore, Outa believes Pamensky failed to recuse himself from decisions in which he had a conflict of interest and displayed a willingness to assist in questionable transactions that favoured Gupta-owned companies.
”This behaviour thus contravened the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Companies Act,” said Theron.
Pamensky was appointed to the Eskom board in December 2014 by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and remained on it until late 2016.
Theron said while on the Eskom board, Pamensky was also a director of the Gupta's Oakbay Resources and Energy and remained an Oakbay director until May 2017.
”He also held director positions and interests at various times in other Gupta businesses, including Shiva Uranium.”