Eskom chalks up R3bn in irregular spend

THE postponement of Eskom’s financial results was triggered by the firm’s auditors raising a qualified audit opinion on the accounts.

The utility had to postpone the presentation until it was able to sort out the matter‚ acting chairman Zethembe Khoza said yesterday.

“Today as we stand here we are comfortable that the qualified audit did not materially impact Eskom‚” Khoza said at the utility’s head office.

Eskom’s accounts showed the utility incurred R3-billion in irregular expenditure‚ which may have triggered some of the covenants on Eskom’s debt.

The results announcement was pushed back by a week while Eskom engaged in negotiations with some of its lenders‚ notably the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and US lender Citibank.

Revenue in the year ended March rose 7.9% to R177-billion‚ while profit dropped 83% to R888million.

The utility has been plagued by allegations of fraud and corruption in its top echelons. The current acting chief executive‚ Johnny Dladla‚ who presented the financials yesterday‚ is the sixth incumbent in the position since 2014.

Eskom has lost billions in suspected fraud and other crimes‚ including hundreds of millions paid to the politically connected Trillian group of companies despite it having conducted no work for the utility. Khoza said this and other irregularities and offences were being investigated.

The utility was forging ahead with its disciplinary processes against suspended executive Matshela Koko‚ who has been accused of irregularly awarding contracts to a company in which his stepdaughter owns shares.

Koko is also accused of failing to declare this to Eskom.

The alleged offences occurred over the period from July 2014 until May 2017‚ when Koko was head of generation and then acting chief executive. — DDC