Executives at Eskom have resisted attempts to investigate coal contracts entered into by the state-owned power utility and Tegeta Exploration & Resources Ltd, a company controlled by the Gupta family, South Africa's Treasury said on Monday. Tegeta is partly owned by the Gupta family, which is being investigated by the anti-corruption watchdog on suspicion of holding undue political sway over President Jacob Zuma and influencing government appointments. The Guptas, a family of Indian-born businessmen who moved to South Africa in the early 1990s, have denied trying to influence political appointments, saying they are the victims of a plot. Zuma has also denied any wrongdoing.Eskom said in a statement over the weekend that the Treasury had not issued any conclusive findings against it on any of the utility's coal contracts' and that it was cooperating with the Treasury on its investigations of the coal contracts.The Sunday Times reported that the Treasury's investigation had revealed that Eskom paid more than 130 million rand ($9 million) to a mining company owned by the Gupta family for coal the power utility could not use.The Treasury said contrary to Eskom's statement, the utility had blocked its investigations since April. "The National Treasury would like to categorically state that, its efforts have met resistance," it said in a statement.The Treasury said it had sent a report to Eskom's Chief Executive Officer Brian Molefe and board Chairman Ben Ngubane for their comment and requested a list of payments made to Tegeta, both of which the utility ignored.The Treasury said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan escalated the matter to Ngubane, raising concerns about advance payments made to Tegeta but this efforts also failed to bear fruit.Eskom denied this on Monday.Eskom said it had received a report from the Treasury in April and that it planned to reply to the by the end of September after a board meeting. The report had found no wrongdoing on the state-run power utility's part, it said."In a nutshell, we stand by our story," Eskom's spokesman Khulu Phasiwe told Reuters. ..