Cape Town - German software giant SAP announced on Friday that it will provide an update during the last week of October 2017 into allegations of wrongdoing in its South African business.
The company initiated an investigation spearheaded by international law firm Baker McKenzie on July 12 2017 into allegations it paid a Gupta front company R100m in "kickbacks" for state business.
At the same time, SAP placed four senior executives on administrative leave pending the finalisation of this investigation.
The team from Baker McKenzie has been reviewing and scrutinising large volumes of data, talking to a variety of stakeholders and conducting interviews with all relevant persons.
“We are acutely aware that we owe South Africa answers. While we understand the public’s legitimate frustration at the length of the investigation, it is imperative that we get this process right,” said Adaire Fox Martin, a member of the executive board of SAP.
“We remain committed to delivering on our initial promise to manage this process in a transparent way and to give a full account to our employees, customers, partners and the South African public.”
The software company said it a statement that it was committed to the highest standards of business ethics. "SAP will not tolerate any misconduct. Any evidence of wrongdoing will be dealt with vigorously and comprehensively," it said.
Digging deeper
On Friday KPMG International on Friday announced a new independent investigation into KPMG SA’s work for the Gupta family and its role in authoring the controversial SARS ‘rogue unit’ report.
The global auditing firm’s chairperson John Veihmeyer, who earlier this week “sincerely apologised for what went wrong in KPMG SA” said the investigation would be led by a senior SA legal figure who was “completely independent” of both KPMG South Africa and KPMG International.
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