Inflating building materials and forging documents were some of the “deceptive” schemes employees from Eskom and construction giants Stenafutti Stocks and Basil Read “fraudulently contrived” to induce the power utility to pay the two broke firms to keep them financially afloat.
A forensic report by law firm Bowmans shows that, in September 2015, Eskom employees forged and inflated a bill of quantities (BOQ) – a detailed document in which the work, labour, and costs of building projects are itemised – in a desperate bid to pay the Stefanutti Stocks-Basil Read joint venture (SSBR) a global claim which the Kusile main claims committee (KMCC) had initially rejected. Bowmans’ report, which is part of the “Eskom Files”, also shows that the SSBR had inflated the cost of building material it had bought to construct the Kusile power station to alleviate a crippling cash-flow problem.
The Eskom Files, obtained by News24, are a vast data leak containing legal and financial records, emails and forensic reports exposing how construction firms and executives pillaged hundreds of millions during the construction of Kusile. In 2011, Eskom had appointed SSBR for a R16-billion project to build several buildings, including the main office block at Kusile.