Accounting firm Deloitte on Friday agreed to pay back Eskom R150 million and avoid a court showdown.
Deloitte in a statement said the settlement agreement it had reached with the power producer will be made an order of court in the Joburg High Court soon.
“The agreement reached today resolves an outstanding dispute between the parties over services provided by Deloitte Consulting to Eskom from April 2016 to September 2017,” Deloitte said.
“The settlement amount was determined after extensive negotiation between the parties in order to avoid protracted and costly litigation.”
Eskom in October, under the leadership of then chairman and acting CEO Jabu Mabuza sued for more than R207 million for two tenders and other work the audit firm secured “improperly” during 2016. Deloitte at the time said it would fight the claim in court as it did nothing wrong.
However, as part of the settlement, Deloitte and Eskom agreed that Deloitte had not done anything untoward and that the power producer had benefited and continues to benefit for work it had done.
Strangely, Mabuza just five months ago had maintained that information in Eskom’s position showed Eskom officials gave Deloitte off-the record briefings on proposals and that Deloitte was granted contracts even though their pricing was way above their competitors.
