Cape Town - The Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) investigation at Eskom has uncovered organised crime, scheming and collusion between officials at various levels, in particular with senior employees.
Briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, SIU head Andy Mothibi said they found the modus operandi used by the officials to fleece out monies from the entity.
“It is really important, and we will find time to engage with Eskom management so that the modus operandi can be unpacked,” he said.
Eskom regulated conflict of interest among its employees through a number of policies and procedures, but officials circumvent the controls.
“In some instances Eskom officials approach complete strangers to set up subcontractors and bank accounts through which to channel funds to officials,” Mothibi said.
Giving an insight into the practice, Mothibi said officials facilitated contracts with coal providers to ensure coal was delivered despite concerns about coal quality being raised by technical experts.
“No wonder machinery in the system will be affected as negatively as it is. That is actually close to sedition,” he said.
Officials will collude with mines by entering into contracts where prices were inflated to accommodate transportation costs.
“Often such coal is procured from mines that are far away from the relevant power station instead of mines that are producing coal at the required quality that are suited close to the power station in order to increase transportation costs,” Mothibi said.
Mines and the officials also colluded with transporters and/or truck drivers to mix poor quality coal from certain mines with good quality coal from other mines.
Mothibi said thorough vetting of officials upon employment was not enough, but Eskom should implement contractual terms that allow access to personal information of the employees and continued monitoring of high risk employees.
SIU chief investigator Leonard Lekgetho said they investigated 334 employees for conflict of interest and made 135 referrals for disciplinary proceedings.
A total of 117 disciplinary proceedings were finalised with 67 guilty sanctions, 18 not guilty, 19 resigned, four retired and eight cases withdrawn.
Eighteen disciplinary referrals were still outstanding.
Lekgetho said 14 referrals were made to the National Prosecuting Authority for criminal prosecution.
He added that they investigated a total of 5464 officials for failure to submit declaration of interest and referred for disciplinary action.
Of those referred, 3875 were finalised and 1563 withdrawn.
There were also 29 complaints received from whistleblowers and 10 were referred for disciplinary proceedings.
Lekgetho told Scopa that 34 high risk Eskom employees were referred to the SIU for lifestyle audits, and 11 cases were referred for disciplinary proceedings.
In another development, Eskom announced on Wednesday that an employee from Tutuka Power Station was arrested on October 17 for the removal of 10 drums of hydraulic oil from the on-site stores facility.
The stolen drums of hydraulic oil are valued at more than R 800 000.00. The arrested employee appeared in the Standerton Magistrate’s Court and was remanded in custody for a bail application.
In a separate incident at the Matla Power Station, three cleaning contractors working on the site were arrested for allegedly stealing copper cables which they placed in a waste storage container on Monday.
The suspects were under the watchful surveillance of the investigators who pounced on them when they attempted to remove the container from the area.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter told Scopa that vetting of senior executives and supply chain management units continued.
“There is progress being made and the State Security Agency made a presentation to our board at the last meeting,” De Ruyter said.
In its report to the committee, Eskom said it completed the first phase of 383 mandatory lifestyle audits on executives and senior managers and their partners.
There were 239 cases in various stages of investigation as at September.
Eskom stated that of the 34 cases from the lifestyle audits, 17 cases were closed; 11 referred for disciplinary proceedings; one employee dismissed on an unrelated matter and five were under investigation.
Of the 11 disciplinary referrals, seven were found guilty, two not guilty, one resigned and one more retired.
De Ruyter said Eskom was now freezing pensions of employees who resigned in the face of disciplinary proceedings as a disincentive to those who may want to follow suit.
Mothibi said the SIU was pleased that Eskom management was holding those responsible accountable.
Cape Times
Now watch: