investigations, in which Eskom contracts investigators to comb through personal details such as bank accounts and assets of the families of its employees, will begin in the next few weeks in key departments such as procurement and group capital, which is responsible for new capital investments, the utility said on Thursday 28 November 2019.
Some employees’ spouses declined to co-operate with the probe, in which case Eskom relied on other measures, such as the SIU’s ability to subpoena the required information from banks and the deeds office. Supplying about 95% of the country’s electricity, Eskom is also the single biggest risk to the economy, with an outstanding debt of R454-billion in the six months ended September. The utility began raising the debt about 14 years ago, in order to pay new capital investments in the form of three power stations that will add new capacity totalling 10,900 megawatts of electricity generation infrastructure at completion.
Today, however, Eskom said it still has a revenue gap of R50-billion to meet all its debt obligations. That is what it needs to service the interest on its debt, plus capital repayments. This means it will again request a further cash bailout in 2020. This reporting period, Eskom was forced to ration electricity for five days during October and November as some of its equipment broke down unexpectedly.
If the example of Eskom, of widespread lifestyle audits for executives and managers becomes government policy, we will see a significant reduction in corruption and unauthorized expenditure. Govmnt should move swiftly to adopt such a policy, if serious about uprooting corruption.