Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown
Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has welcomed the decision by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown to refer Eskom’s procurement contracts, including those signed with the Gupta family-linked Tegeta Resources, to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for investigation.
The SIU will investigate all Eskom’s procurement from 2007 onwards.
Scopa chairperson Themba Godi, in a statement released on Tuesday, said this would go a long way to identify “systemic challenges” within Eskom and provide recommendations for improvements.
He noted that Scopa had met with Eskom executives on Tuesday when note was made of Scopa’s confirmation and agreement with advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ findings on noncompliance.
Scopa acknowledged that Eskom had addressed 45 of the 48 identified noncompliance findings and that the remaining three were to be addressed before the end of the year.
However, Godi said the committee “remained concerned” about issues of noncompliance, particularly in such an important public utility as Eskom, which could not afford to have lapses in governance.
He added that Scopa was concerned about all four sampled mines, not only Tegeta’s. “Those four mines were only samples, meaning that there could be weaknesses in a number of procurement practices,” he highlighted.
Meanwhile, news agency Eyewitness News reported on Tuesday that Eskom CEO Brian Molefe had told Scopa that the Tegeta coal deal was signed before he arrived at the power utility and had explained that he was not involved in the agreement.
“The engagement with Tegeta on the Brakfontein colliery and the engagement with Tegeta about their contract on the Brakfontein colliery, actually started in May 2013. I arrived at Eskom in April 2015,” stated Molefe.