SIU gives SAP until next week to pay back R500m earned from invalid contracts
SAP scored two contracts at Eskom between 2013 and 2016 valued at over R1 billion for software licences, maintenance, and support. The contracts have been declared invalid.
Software giant SAP will pay more than R4 billion (over $220 million) to resolve investigations led by US authorities into schemes to pay bribes to government officials in South Africa and Indonesia. Picture: © moovstock/123rf.com
JOHANNESBURG - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has given German software giant SAP until next week to pay back R500 million rand earned from dodgy contracts.
SAP scored two contracts at Eskom between 2013 and 2016 valued at over R1 billion for software licences, maintenance, and support.
The SIU’s investigation found that SAP then entered into a third-party agreement, channelling the money to a Gupta-linked company, CAD House.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the contracts have been declared invalid.
"SIU findings revealed that the Enabling Agreement and the Cloud Services Agreement did not comply with the Public Finance Management Act, which resulted in Eskom incurring fruitless and wasteful expenditures in respect of the agreements."
Kganyago said the order by the Special Tribunal was only a portion of the total amount that the SIU planned to claw back from the software firm.
"The order of the Special Tribunal is part of the implementation of the SIU investigation outcomes and consequence management to recover financial losses suffered by State institutions due to negligence or corruption. The settlement agreement does not absolve SAP or any implicated party from possible prosecution."