Eskom is considering taking the findings of the public protector’s State of Capture report on review as it believes it was not afforded the right to be interviewed despite providing all information that was requested.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela made a number of findings that Eskom had favoured Gupta-owned Tegeta by awarding a number of coal supply contracts to it.

In a media briefing on Friday‚ Eskom said all contracts with Tegeta were concluded in line with the power supplier’s procurement policies and all the transactions had a clear commercial rationale

Eskom said it had cooperated with the public protector by providing all the required information — in 160 boxes — but it was not afforded the opportunity to explain the information.

One of the observations made by the public protector was that the prepayment of R659-million to Tegeta appeared to be irregular.

The board denied this‚ saying Eskom had made similar prepayments to guarantee the supply of coal for its power stations.

Eskom board member Pat Naidoo said the latest prepayment was made to Exarro’s Matla mine for R1.8-billion‚ which was approved on September 27 this year.

Naidoo said the amount provided to Tegeta was fully recovered by Eskom by August 31 this year.

“The procurement complied with Eskom’s procurement policy‚” Naidoo said.

– TMG Digital