Cape Town - G9 Consulting and Advisory Services says former Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh lied when he told the portfolio committee on public enterprise, that the forensic firm withdrew its report into alleged illegal and irregular payments by the power utility.
G9 senior counsel Dumisa Ntsebeza said Singh lied to the committee, and charged that their mandate to further investigate the payments to Gupta-owned companies was terminated by the utility’s Board Tender Committee.
The Board Tender Committee was at the time chaired by Zethembe Khoza.
The investigation centres payments amounting to R1.6 billion made to McKinsey and Trillian by financially-strained power utility Eskom for consulting contracts.
G9 was appointed by Eskom’s Anti-corruption and Forensics Unit to investigate allegations by a whistleblower of two payments made to the Gupta-owned companies.
In its investigation, it discovered that there was no contract between Trillian and Eskom to make the payments. It further discovered possible acts of corruption, money laundering and racketeering involving members of the tender board.
Murugan told the committee that they met with former board chairperson Zethembe Khoza and the Audit and Risk Committee to present findings of their investigation, after which their mandate to investigate was abruptly terminated.
“We demonstrated to the Audit and Risk Committee that the investigation was proceeding well, and that several senior officials were being found wanting, and that evidence was pointing to criminal conduct in as far as Trillian was concerned,” said Murugan.
At that meeting it was resolved that the investigation should continue and that G9 should interview Mckinsey and Trillian, as well as Mr Anoj Singh.
He said they had communicated to the Audit and Risk Committee that they believed members of the board tender committee have contravened their fiduciary duties, in authorising payments to Trillian and should be subjected to further investigation.
He told the committee that the Board of Tenders Committee sent out an email two hours after the meeting, to inform G9 of its intention to terminate its mandate to further investigate.
“We believe that our mandate was terminated because we made clear our intentions to investigate the Board Tender Committee,” said Murugan.
Murugan told the committee that the Trillian mess must “be left at the door of the previous Board Tender Committee.