JOHANNESBURG, February 6 (ANA) – Eskom on Monday announced a decision to terminate six coal transportation agreements after certain contractors were found to have flouted regulations following an investigation as part of its ongoing campaign to ensure clean governance.
The suppliers whose contracts were terminated are Constructibility 10CC, Fastrak, IM Monokoane, NJM Transport, Lamavuso and Dhlams and Dhlams.
Eskom said it undertook an investigation after receiving a tip-off in July 2016 that some Free Carrier Arrangement (FCA) transporters had unlawfully introduced additional trucks into the coal road transportation system.
Eskom currently moves about 40 million tonnes of coal using two road transportation channels.
The first is a FCA which involves transporters that are directly contracted to Eskom. There are currently 58 of these transporters running under a four-year contract that commenced in April 2014, ending in March 2018.
The rest of the road deliveries are done by the mines through a model that is normally referred to as “DEL” within the power supplier. In this instance, transporters are directly contracted to the mines for the delivery of coal as opposed to the ones directly contracted to Eskom through the FCA.
Resulting from the preliminary investigation process, six FCA transporters were suspended for seven weeks between 14 July and 7 September 2016.
Eskom interim chief executive, Matshela Koko, said in a statement that the power supplier had conducted a “limited investigation” that some FCA transporters had unlawfully introduced additional trucks into the coal road transportation system.
“Considering the discrepancies that surfaced during this limited investigation, Eskom commissioned an independent investigation into the unlawful introduction of additional trucks by FCA transporters,” Koko said.
Koko said it emerged during the course of the secondary investigation that the conduct of the six transporters had severely prejudiced compliant FCA transporters.
“This conduct has gravely deprived compliant transporters to a fair and equitable distribution of coal that was available to be hauled to Eskom’s power stations.”
Koko said that Eskom would continue to act decisively to ensure compliance with the policies of the utility so as to achieve “unimpeachable procurement decisions across the company’s entire value chain”.
– African News Agency (ANA)
