Eskom's Treasury Draft report calls for Koko investigation

The Treasury wants Eskom’s chief financial officer and acting CEO Matshela Koko investigated to establish whether they acted negligently when implementing the directives of the board’s tender committee.

This forms part of the remedial actions put forward by the Treasury in its draft report reviewing Eskom’s coal supply agreement with Tegeta Exploration and Resources.

Such an investigation would be conducted by an auditing firm, which would be appointed by the office of the chief procurement officer at the Treasury in consultation with the accounting authority.
The report was sent to the interested parties two weeks ago and they had until Friday to make submissions on it. Eskom confirmed to Business Day on Sunday that it had met Friday’s deadline to submit its response.

The Treasury also confirmed to Business Day on Sunday that all the interested parties in the matter had met Friday’s deadline, with documents having been supplied to the fiscus.
However, at this stage it is unclear what is in the documents supplied.

The Treasury wants Eskom’s chief financial officer and acting CEO Matshela Koko investigated to establish whether they acted negligently when implementing the directives of the board’s tender committee.
This forms part of the remedial actions put forward by the Treasury in its draft report reviewing Eskom’s coal supply agreement with Tegeta Exploration and Resources.
Such an investigation would be conducted by an auditing firm, which would be appointed by the office of the chief procurement officer at the Treasury in consultation with the accounting authority.
The report was sent to the interested parties two weeks ago and they had until Friday to make submissions on it. Eskom confirmed to Business Day on Sunday that it had met Friday’s deadline to submit its response.
The Treasury also confirmed to Business Day on Sunday that all the interested parties in the matter had met Friday’s deadline, with documents having been supplied to the fiscus.
However, at this stage it is unclear what is in the documents supplied.

 

Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said: "Yes, Eskom has complied with the April 21 deadline set by the National Treasury. As you know, the National Treasury is still investigating Eskom’s coal contracts, a process they started in July 2015, and would conclude their investigations in due course.

"It would be advisable for all interested parties, including the media, to give the Treasury the space and time to conclude its investigations. Eskom will continue to work constructively with National Treasury to reach finality on this matter."
Eskom board spokesman Khulani Qoma said: "The report being referred to is not final but a draft version — its contents are therefore not reliable at present. It will be grossly unfair to use the contents of a draft report to make conclusive comments about the culpability of Eskom and/or its leaders.
"This being a draft, Eskom has been given an opportunity to respond.... We remain puzzled by the rationale behind the deliberate leaking of the report.... This unfortunately has an effect of unfairly damaging the name of Eskom as perceptions would now be reality."
Tegeta CEO Ravindra Nath assured Business Day on Sunday that Oakbay’s corporate communications division would provide comment, but it had not done so by the time of publication and his cellphone went to voicemail.

On April 11 2016, Eskom’s board held a late-night special tender committee meeting at which a number of resolutions were made and which the chief financial officer and Koko, as the then group executive for generation, were meant to implement. But the report notes: "There was no sufficient time for the [chief financial officer] to conduct any due diligence …"
In another development, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has turned down a board proposal to award former CEO Brian Molefe a R30m pension payout. The minister has given Eskom seven days to come up with an alternative.