Eskom settled fraudulent invoice – insider

A whistle-blower yesterday told the parliamentary inquiry into Eskom that the power utility settled a fraudulent invoice from Trillian for R30.6 million.

Former Trillian Management Consulting (TMC) chief executive Bianca Goodson said she found her signature on a cover letter to the invoice that was sent to Anoj Singh, Eskom’s chief financial officer, who was suspended following allegations of improper payments to companies linked to the politically connected Gupta brothers.

She neither compiled the invoice, nor wrote the cover letter, Goodson said. She was adamant that there was no reason to remunerate TMC, an affiliate of Trillian Capital Partners (TCP), as it had only one other employee and no capacity to deliver on a big contract. Yet the sum was paid to Trillian.

Goodson said she quit Trillian in 2016 after two and half months with the company, disabused of the notion that it would be a “proudly black consulting firm”.

“It is my impression that I was not employed for my competence,” she said.

She said she discovered there was no intention for the company to develop capacity. Instead, its role appeared to secure contracts with the state for companies like consulting firm McKinsey and earn large sums for doing very little work.

“It was created to get 50% of certain revenues,” Goodson said, when questioned by MPs about the modus operandi of the company.

She said she had been instructed to open an account with the Bank of Baroda and hand over signing power to somebody else. She added that she never saw money come in or go out of the account.

Her testimony corroborated that of another Trillian whistle-blower Mosilo Mothepu, who told the inquiry this week staff were informed former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene would be fired some six weeks before it happened in December 2015.

Like Mothepu, she said she was informed that Mohamad Bobatwould become the advisor to the new finance minister, Des van Rooyen.