Report slams Eskom coal contract

THE multibillion-rand coal supply contract between Eskom and Gupta-owned firm Tegeta was hastily put together by copying and pasting sections from other contracts.

This was revealed in parliament by senior officials from the Treasury’s chief procurement office during their meeting with the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) yesterday.

Scopa convened the meeting to discuss a PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) report on the coal supply contract‚ which was signed amid controversy in 2015.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said yesterday she was considering asking the SIU to conduct a further probe.

She said in answer to a question in the National Assembly that the report “does throw up a number of allegations”.

The PwC report says the contract was poorly formatted‚ contained irrelevant information and ambiguities, and appeared to have been hastily drafted by copying and pasting sections from other contracts. It also says quality criteria in the contract were amended later in a letter to Tegeta.

This made it unenforceable as both parties should agree to any amendment in writing and no evidence to this effect was supplied.

Treasury official Solly Tshitangano said the contract‚ initially valued at R3.7-billion for 10 years‚ had been signed without a competitive bidding process.

It had been concluded under Eskom guidelines that allowed for coal to be procured without tender if there was a shortage.