Financial Mail publishes full Dentons report on Eskom

THE Financial Mail has released the full Dentons report into irregularities at Eskom to allow South Africans to make up their own minds about the goings-on at the parastatal.

This early version of the report‚ which Eskom has refused to make public‚ was compiled by law firm Dentons and raised concerns about the management at the power utility.

A second report‚ by auditing firm Deloitte, raised concerns about Eskom spending R10-billion on emergency coal purchases in 2008 through irregular contracts.

The contracts were negotiated during the load-shedding period which crippled the country.

It also drew attention to a contract awarded to Isambane‚ a company owned by Koos Reinecke, a personal friend of former Eskom procurement negotiator Koos Jordaan.

In publishing the Dentons report‚ FM deputy editor Sikonathi Mantshantsha questioned Eskom’s decision to only release a heavily redacted version of the report for which it paid R20-million.

“Eskom has chosen not to provide this sort of transparency‚ but we believe it is fundamental for the public to judge for itself the evidence detailing the near-meltdown of the electricity parastatal‚” Mantshantsha said.

The early version of the Dentons report published by FM finds: Eskom wasted around R200-million over two years by failing to negotiate discounts with diesel suppliers. It also paid suppliers without receiving proper invoices;

Eskom failed to comply with the Public Finance Management Act; and

Senior executives selected suppliers they wished to negotiate with while other more capable companies were not considered. – TMG Digital, BusinessLive