South African power utility Eskom said on Thursday that it was aware of damning findings of an investigation by German software maker SAP into its dealings with state-owned entities as a third party
SAP said that it had finished its investigation by the law firm Baker McKenzie into South Africa's contracts relating to Gupta-controlled firms. The firm admitted it paid more than US $8-million to intermediary companies controlled by the Gupta family.
The firm said a probe into its dealings with the Guptas found that it had paid about R128.6-million to businesses linked to the Gupta family between 2014 and 2017 in order to win IT contracts with state-owned companies.
"Eskom is aware of the findings of an investigation that was undertaken by technology group SAP. SAP had only discussed these findings with Eskom management yesterday, and Eskom has committed to undertaking its own investigation and will work together with SAP," Eskom said in a statement.
SAP said there was no evidence of payments directly to South African government officials. But three senior SAP executives who were suspended in July last year have since resigned after being investigated by the company.
"One contract involved a commission of 10%, while the other five contracts involved a commission rate of 14.9%, just below the 15% threshold that would have triggered an SAP executive board review of the deals," the investigation found.
SAP said that it has taken a decision to end all sales commissions on public sector deals in countries with poor corruption ratings.