Newsletter| The US company that designed the extremely flawed Kusile Power Station was given a blank cheque by Eskom, which it cashed in to score R12 billion. Despite the shoddy work, the company is still being paid hundreds of millions of rands
Despite the fact that the engineering consulting firm Black & Veatch, which is situated in Kansas in the US, delivered shoddy work that continues to hobble Kusile’s performance, two senior Eskom executives told City Press last week that the company is still being paid hundreds of millions of rands.
A confidential Eskom tender council report, which City Press obtained, shows that, by the end of December 2017, Black & Veatch had been paid R12 billion. However, Eskom also agreed to pay Black & Veatch a 15% advance payment on every work order, which amounted to more than R1.2 billion.The report states that the consulting firm has been paid R12 billion to date, and will be paid R13 billion by the time it is done in 2022.
“I have been an engineer for more than 30 years and I have never heard a single case where consultants were paid in advance,” he said. The Kusile insider said: “Eskom paid Bureau Veritas R1.5 billion in five years for the same job that was done by Black & Veatch. However, an internal report on the defects at Kusile, Medupi and Ingula power stations, which was sent to the Eskom board last month, found that Kusile and Medupi had major defects, including eroding boilers and faulty coal mills.
The tender council report that outlines the role of Black & Veatch shows that, in November 2017, a number of other tenders were brought before it for modification and expansion approval.
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