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Johannesburg - Eskom has suffered a financial loss of about R129m under what a damning KPMG report says are “questionable circumstances” despite chief executive Thulani Gcabashe having been informed in 2004 - and allegedly doing nothing about it.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that they were investigating a multimillion-rand case of fraud involving several managers at Eskom.
City Press, sister publication of Fin24, can reveal that Gcabashe and his top management team have been sitting on a report, dated May 18 2006, that chronicles a collapse of fiscal control measures, including theft, kickbacks, fraud and apparent corruption in the communications division.
City Press is in possession of a forensic report done by KPMG, an internal audit report prepared by group audit manager Christopher Palm and a set of internal secret reports, including an anonymous letter, detailing how Eskom was fleeced of millions in what appears to have been a "free for all" scam with apparent disregard for fiscal control measures.
Payments without quotations and contracts
The forensic report reveals that the communications section, which was led by Zintle Filtane, made multimillion-rand payments in some cases without having received quotations or contracts.
Where draft contracts existed, some of them had not been signed. Payments were also made without tender processes being followed and in some cases double payments or over-payments were made.
The report says some of the payments were done in cases where there was no proof of "deliverables" or where "deliverables" were questionable.
On the publication of an Eskom annual report, the forensic investigators say Filtane and her team spent R35.2m in just two years in what was supposed to be a three-year R18m contract (R6m a year), representing an over-expenditure of R23m.
R85m in 'questionable' payments
The annual report was being printed by Business in Africa Publishing (BIAP), whose directors include Oluwatoyin Taiwo Adedoyin, Andrew Fasedemi, Eric Mafuna and BIAP chief executive Everest Ekong.
Mafuna claims he was fraudulently made a director even though he signed no form or filled in an application to be a director.
When City Press added the amounts of "questionable" payments that went to companies whose directors include Fasedemi, Ekong and Mafuna, the figure comes to over R85m.
But the biggest beneficiary of the alleged collapse of fiscal control at Eskom remained BIAP.
Romantic relationship
Mafuna and Fasedemi are listed as co-directors of Africa Now, which allegedly conducted high-level coaching and consulting for R8m.
The forensic report says the "deliverables" for these contracts are "questionable". Mafuna said Africa Now neither had a coaching contract with Eskom nor received a cent from it. "Where there is Africa Now in the forensic report it should read Leadership Now, led by Mandla Nkosi."
But Nkosi rejected this, saying by the time he joined Africa Now they already had a contract with Eskom. He confirmed that he used to have a romantic relationship with Filtane while in exile before Filtane started controlling communications at Eskom.