Eskom: coming to the boil
Eskom accuses losing bidders of relying on false information about the Duvha contract awarded to Dongfang Electric
Eskom says it changed the terms of a R4bn boiler tender controversially awarded to Chinese state-owned company Dongfang Electric Corp to avoid paying a R1.7bn insurance penalty. One of six boilers at Eskom’s Duvha power station in Mpumalanga blew up in March 2014, taking 600MW of power off the grid amid a steadily worsening load-shedding crisis. After three years of wrangling with insurers and cancelling then reissuing the tender, Eskom awarded the contract to Dongfang in March. The award came just eight days after politically connected advisory firm Trillian gave Dongfang’s bid the thumbs-up in a last-minute risk assessment of the bids submitted. But losing bidders GE and Murray & Roberts (M&R) have cried foul. GE has asked the court to interdict implementation of the contract until it can be reviewed and adjudicated again. It says Eskom rigged the tender to go to Dongfang even though it was not on the final list of two short-listed bidders and its bid was R1bn more expensive than ...
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