More allegations of impropriety at Eskom after ‘irregular appointment’

An Eskom contractor, Werner Mouton, whose allegedly irregular appointment at the power utility caused a high-level fallout, is at the centre of another allegation of an irregular appointment to get more work at Johannesburg’s Megawatt Park.

The attempt has left Eskom and one of its service providers, Trans-Africa Projects (TAP), contradicting each other over a claim that Mouton, a private contractor hired to help Eskom with fuel oil pricing, attempted to induce employees at Eskom Rotek Industries (ERI) to appoint TAP without going through normal tender processes.

This was allegedly to procure himself more consulting work at Eskom through a project at ERI, one Eskom insider said.  

Sunday Times Daily has seen documents in which Mouton tells ERI employees to appoint TAP to do price benchmarking on a project without putting the work out to tender. 

But Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said last week: “Mr Mouton merely relayed a message from the CEO of TAP, Nicholas Msibi, who indicated that then ERI CEO Philip Dukashe had contacted him (Msibi), inquiring about the possibility of TAP assisting with a project at ERI.

“At that point TAP was already providing some professional services to ERI ... It was for ERI to decide whether they needed this service and, if they did, ERI had to follow their necessary governance processes,” he added.

This version was disputed by Msibi, who said his conversation with Mouton was about engaging him for TAP projects outside Eskom.

“He said to me that he was contracted to Eskom until the end of July. I don’t know why Eskom would tell you what you’re saying.

“He was the one who mentioned to me, towards the end of our conversation, that there might be opportunities at ERI, where he was working on another project. I spoke to (ERI COO Stephen) Dr Meyers and nothing has come of that conversation yet.”

Hoped I could get this going without getting you involved again, but it seems I’ll need your help here.

—  Eskom contractor Werner Mouton

Msibi also dismissed allegations by an Eskom whistle-blower that the original intention was to have Mouton work on the project as a TAP resource and get paid via that entity.

“That would be wrong because he is already contracted to Eskom,” Msibi said.

Mouton’s involvement with ERI projects is in itself irregular as he is employed as a fuel sourcing expert at Eskom’s Generation division. Mantshantsha would not confirm whether the scope of his work had changed.

But the whistle-blower insisted he was doing work at ERI. “There is no reason he would be talking to TAP because TAP is an engineering and project management consultancy. The idea was that he would be employed to work on the ERI project through TAP (therefore negating the need to get National Treasury’s permission to expand his contract to beyond assisting with fuel pricing) and TAP would agree to this because they want to do the work.”

Though TAP, a specialist power-generation and high-voltage services consulting company, is 50% owned by Eskom and Fortune 500 engineering consultancy Fluor, it is run independently of the state-owned entity (SOE) and bids for work like any other supplier would.

“He (Mouton) did not count on resistance from inside ERI,” added the source. 

Internal e-mails from February show one employee, Sitsabo Kuhlase, saying TAP could not be appointed as its existing contract “does not cover for such an undertaking”. 

Mouton then asked Kuhlase’s boss, Meyers, for help, saying: “Hoped I could get this going without getting you involved again, but it seems I’ll need your help here (FYI below). Let me know if I can assist in any way.”

Meyers responded: “This is frustrating for me.

“Sitsabo, please raise an OLT for the services on TAP which can be in place in three days.”

Mantshantsha confirmed TAP was not engaged in the end. 

But key questions, not answered by Eskom, about this latest development include how Mouton, who is already on a 14-month, R2.8m fixed-term contract at Eskom’s Generation division, is able to work on a new project at ERI? This without the necessary permission from National Treasury to expand the scope of his contract, and how Msibi knew about Mouton and called him at Eskom.

Mouton’s original appointment remains controversial as he was only interviewed by Eskom CEO André de Ruyter. His contract was signed in May 2020, four months after he started working at the power utility.

Two weeks ago, the Sunday Times reported that Mouton’s appointment was one of the reasons behind a fallout between De Ruyter and Eskom’s chief procurement officer Solly Tshitangano. 

Tshitangano, who was placed on precautionary suspension for non-performance last week, reported De Ruyter to Eskom’s board chairperson last February for allegedly abusing his power and breaking processes at the power utility, including Mouton’s appointment. His allegations were not investigated.

Eskom has disputed assertions that De Ruyter was disregarding processes, adding that Mouton was hired through an HR process.

The former acting chief procurement officer at National Treasury was an integral part of the Treasury’s fight against capture of SOEs such as Eskom, Transnet and SAA in the past, but could not be reached for comment.

Eskom’s bypassing of procurement processes through applications for deviations to National Treasury was a bone of contention when the company appeared before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) last week. 

MPs serving on the committee, including chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa, expressed serious concerns about the trend. 

The committee was told by National Treasury’s acting chief procurement officer, Estelle Setan, two weeks ago that Eskom had applied to procure goods and services valued at R70bn through deviation from normal procurement processes in the first three quarters of the financial year ending in 2021.