Cape Town - The increased public and expert scrutiny of Eskom’s operations in recent months has struck a nerve with the utility as Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana revealed that the power utility was seeking to increase its credibility with the public by contracting an international consultancy to validate the execution of its turnaround plans.
This was shared during a meeting between the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and Eskom on Tuesday where the board and executives of the power utility faced off with the MPs over the utility’s umpteenth plan to bring the country out of darkness.
Scopa questioned how this plan was different to previous plans it had heard from Eskom, why yet another oversight service was needed for this, and why it was being outsourced to an international consultancy when Eskom was already in financial distress and had the necessary engineers and experts to perform these duties.
Outgoing CEO André de Ruyter said: “What is different is not so much the content of the plan but the way in which we intend to execute it.”
There was greater urgency than ever before from government and Eskom to address the energy crisis. Eskom already receives oversight from the National Treasury as well as the National Energy Crisis Committee (Neccom), which is steering South Africa’s energy action plan.
Makwana said: “This global firm is an initiative that the new board discussed with management because we want to relieve each other of the challenge where we give a systems status update and have people poking holes in the reports. We can’t have Eskom mark its own homework, so this allows us to have better checks and balances.”
ANC MP Bheki Hadebe questioned if this move to involve international engineers and experts was not simply Eskom outsourcing the human resources and capabilities it already had to monitor the implementation of the plan.
Makwana said: “In strict terms, it is not outsourcing – it is adding new capabilities into the dialogue.”
Makwana added that if they were to have any credibility in the eyes of South Africans, they needed this independent voice to verify for the country if they were hitting the requisite targets relative to the turnaround of Eskom’s operations.
