Eskom’s huge loss blamed on dismal management
The poor management skills of Eskom employees have led to a huge loss of money by the parastatal as there were no checks and balances on debt owed.
This was the view of Suzanne Daniels‚ the now-fired head of legal services and compliance at Eskom, after the state utility on Monday reported a loss of R2.3bn in the past year and R19bn in irregular expenditure.
Daniels has been a whistleblower at Eskom, revealing a number of corrupt deals.
“Why is there R19bn in irregular expenditure while we had external auditors at the entity every now and again since 2012?” she said.
“Why was this not noticed? “There’s a lack of skills from the management – they could have picked up these things.”
Daniels said a lot of the blame should be put on the shoulders of those in charge.
“They can’t even collect debt from the municipalities.
“There were negotiations with the municipalities but that was done haphazardly‚ hence we find ourselves in this situation‚” she said.
The parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises chair‚ Lungi Mnganga Gcabashe‚ expressed concern about the latest Eskom report.
She said the committee would continue to engage with Eskom to address its challenges and restore confidence.
“The power utility has in the past months come under scrutiny because of the financial and operational performance it experienced,” she said.
“The committee will make time in its programme to invite Eskom‚ so that members are briefed on the latest financial results.”
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said Eskom must unpack what happened to the R19bn.
“They want to get sympathy from people – they must first tell us what happened to the R19bn. Who got what‚ who pocketed the money‚” he said.
The DA’s Natasha Mazzone said the losses were as a result of the years of corruption‚ mismanagement and a bloated staff complement at the utility.
“Eskom’s latest financials once again reiterate the need for a complete turnaround strategy for South Africa’s energy sector‚” she said.
Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said a proper diagnosis of Eskom was needed.
“We can’t keep on changing the management and move them around while they are implicated in allegations of fraud,” he said.
“Eskom’s problems are affecting the country‚ not them. A solution is needed‚ speedily.”
Eskom is at loggerheads with unions over pay increases.
Eskom said initially that it would not pay staff any increases but backtracked after pressure from unions and offered an increase of 7.5% for this year‚ and further increases for the next three financial years.
In its defence‚ Eskom blamed corrupt individuals who have since left. It said it had seen 10 chief executives and six boards in 10 years.
In a statement‚ Eskom said 10 implicated senior executives had left and “outstanding disciplinary hearings relating to senior executives are being accelerated”.
In the report, it said 11 criminal cases had been opened‚ five involving nine senior executives.
“A total of 1‚049 outstanding disciplinary cases since April 2018‚ of which 628 have been finalised‚ [resulted] in 75 employee exits.”
The utility said 239 whistleblowing cases had been investigated‚ 122 of which had been concluded.
“Disciplinary process is under way in respect of 67 confirmed cases and remedial action has been taken against 25 staff doing business with Eskom. Seven have exited.”
Energy expert Ted Blom‚ a partner at Mining & Energy Advisors‚ said there would be pressure at Eskom until the 2020 financial year.
“Eskom has‚ over the past 10 years‚ perfected the highly lucrative art of ‘crying wolf’ – a tariff-raising strategy which has enabled it to fleece the SA economy of some R1.3-trillion.
“This has been highly rewarding gameplay‚ but finally the public and Nersa have woken to this trick‚” Blom said.
“If the government or President [Cyril] Ramaphosa is serious about slaying corruption‚ then this is where the investigation needs to begin.
“Ramaphosa has asked for ideas on how to relieve the financial burden on the public.
“A good start would be to clean up Eskom as doing so would allow energy prices to return to below 40c/ kWh – a 50% reduction which will spearhead the SA economy and job growth.”