Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is expected to receive a report by German energy consulting firm VGBE Energy e.V. on the state of Eskom’s failing electricity infrastructure.
The report was commissioned by the Treasury to evaluate 14 coal-fired power stations in South Africa.
National Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse said the energy consultancy will submit the report to Godongwana, whereafter Eskom may implement some of the findings to address South Africa’s ongoing load shedding crisis.
The consultancy’s mandate was to explore the viability of the 14 plants.
The firm was also hired to access skills assessment at the plants and recommend what operational improvements can be implemented to better help power generation, Bloomberg reported.
“There are recommendations around procurement, access to spare parts and so on, and how the maintenance regimes can be better managed,” Pieterse said.
“We think these kinds of reports should become the norm,” for state-owned companies, he concluded.
Fraud and Lost Funds at Eskom
Earlier this week it was reported that according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) the value of Eskom contracts brought before civil courts to date amounted to R7.9 billion.
Briefing the standing committee on public accounts on Tuesday, SIU head Andy Mothibi said the value of the contracts set aside was R10.2 billion and R1.5 billion had been recovered.
Mothibi added that the SIU had made 5671 referrals to Eskom for disciplinary proceedings against employees who had not declare that they were conducting business with the power utility.
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