Failure to heed advice cost Eskom R300m
Lynne Brown wants to know why the power utility misled her as consultancy red flagged Trillian payments
Eskom could have saved more than R300m had it listened to advice it received in December that payments to Gupta-linked Trillian were irregular and possibly illegal. This information is likely to be contained in a report Eskom will submit to Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Friday explaining why it misled her, Parliament and the media about irregular payments totalling R1.6bn to Trillian and global consultancy McKinsey. Business Day has seen evidence that consultancy Oliver Wyman rang alarm bells about the payments months before a final settlement was made with Trillian in February. But Eskom ignored these warnings — then lied about them. The R600m Eskom irregularly paid to Trillian when it was majority owned by Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa makes up a fifth of the R3bn Eskom incurred in irregular and wasteful expenditure in the year to March, risking a default trigger on the utility’s outstanding debt as it breached some of its covenants.
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