Minister Brown orders Eskom to release coal report today
The Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, on Tuesday ordered Eskom to respond to National Treasury's review of the power utility's coal contracts.
The Department of Public Enterprises says Minister Brown is a shareholder representative for Eskom and five more state owned companies and that there is a communication protocol for all departments to engage with them through her office.
"Minister Brown has requested Eskom to cooperate with National Treasury and respond to the matters raised in the 172 page document by today," the department said.
Min Brown has requested Eskom to cooperate with N/Treasury and respond to the matters raised in the 172 page document by today.
— DPE_ZA (@DPE_ZA) August 30, 2016
This comes after the Treasury said its efforts to obtain information on the power utility's controversial coal deal with a Gupta-owned coal firm has been met with continuous resistance.
Eskom released a statement on Sunday saying it has been co-operating with the process.
National Treasury says it has made several attempts to get information from Eskom, which includes:
- Sending a report to the Eskom Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brian Molefe and the Chairperson of the Board Mr Ben Ngubane and a request for comment on it.
- Granting an extension that Eskom requested to provide the comments.
- A request for Eskom to submit a system generated list of payments made to Tegeta and invoices received from Tegeta for the period 1 September 2015 to 30 April 2016.
- A letter by National Treasury Director General Mr Lungisa Fuzile, requesting that Eskom withdraw its statement suggesting that 'all the Tegeta coal contracts with Eskom have been extensively audited by various agencies, including National Treasury,' whilst clearly that was not the case.