Treasury at odds with Eskom
THE NATIONAL Treasury has taken aim at Eskom, accusing the utility of refusing to cooperate with investigations into its coal procurement from Gupta-owned mining firm Tegeta Exploration.
It was reported over the weekend Eskom was co-operating with the Treasury, and that Tegeta had threatened to seek an urgent interdict to prevent the Treasury from releasing a report on Eskom contracts.
“The National Treasury is surprised by media reports of Tegeta ‘warning’ and threatening to interdict the department should it release a report into its investigation of Eskom’s coal contracts,” Treasury said in a statement yesterday.
“The National Treasury would like to categorically state that its efforts have met resistance. Since April, the National Treasury has made several attempts to get information from Eskom.”
The contracts are reportedly worth R400 million a year for a period of 10 years.
On Sunday, Eskom said the Treasury investigation into the coal contracts was not complete.
It said it has been co-operating with the investigations by the Treasury.
DA MP David Maynier, who serves in the standing committee on finance, said they welcomed Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s tough stance on Eskom for refusing to co-operate with the investigation.
The Treasury said, since April, Eskom has not co-operated with the investigations.
This led to various attempts by the Treasury, including asking the Eskom board for information, without success.
“To date, not only has Eskom failed to honour
its undertaking to submit comments to Treasury’s report, but it chose to ignore correspondence and put up all forms of hindrances,” the Treasury said.
It said public funds must be accounted for and this was laid out in the law and the constitution.
The Treasury had been struggling to get Eskom to provide information on the coal contracts for a prolonged period.
“It needs to be noted that, Section 217 (1) of the Constitution stipulates that for any goods or services contracted, public entities are required to use a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. The Public Finance Management Act requires entities to provide such required information to the relevant Treasury or Auditor-General.”
At the weekend, Oakbay Investments said Tegeta had done nothing wrong in the securing of the coal contracts.
The company said everything had been done as required by law. Oakbay said when the Treasury wanted to release the report, Tegeta offered to co-operate.
However, the Treasury said it hit a brick wall at Eskom.