Mathebula report slated

Acting chief procurement officer Willie Mathebula apologised to parliament’s standing committee on finance yesterday for giving a “sub-standard presentation” after members expressed dismay that he claimed no direct knowledge of the withdrawal of a damning report on Eskom’s coal contracts with Tegeta.

Mathebula was also not able to provide details on Eskom’s request for deviations from public finance management rules for nuclear procurement contracts, apart from confirming that the power utility had obtained deviations on deals worth R31.1 billion.

Senior ANC MP Derek Hanekom, pictured, said it was a disappointing presentation and criticised the absence of detail in it.

Hanekom said MPs were concerned that the office of the chief procurement officer was not simply facing a deluge of deviations but an abuse of the system.

The South African Revenue Service was second on the list, with R1.2 billion. According to Mathebula, in the last financial year, the office of the chief procurement officer received 793 applications for deviations from procurement rules and approved 450 outright. A further 198 were approved with conditions.

He demurred when Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson David Maynier pressed him for detail on Eskom, and in particular the fate of a report on its coal contracts with Tegeta that recommended a forensic audit but was withdrawn after it was presented to parliament’s watchdog standing committee on public accounts.

The probe into Eskom’s Tegeta contracts began on the watch of former chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown as a routine investigation into deals worth R10 million but attracted considerable political scrutiny after former public protector Thuli Madonsela red-flagged the Gupta-owned company’s dealings with the utility in her report on state capture.

“On what basis do you think you can simply not reply?” asked Maynier.

Mathebula responded that his office had only received questions from the committee late on Monday and that providing detail on individual contracts would have been “a mammoth task”.

He said he was not aware of the withdrawal of the report on Eskom’s coal contracts, saying the office of the accountant-general was investigating Eskom. “The OAG would be in a position to provide details on what is happening in that particular space; the OAG deals with corruption.” – ANA