Lucky for Some

Just last week we read about gross mismanagement within ESKOM.

A leaked confidential internal memo from Eskom reveals gross mismanagement of funds during the procurement of capital and management of coal supplies, a Democratic Alliance MP said on Thursday.

"Given the seriousness of the allegations made in this memo, it is clearly now incumbent upon the Minister of Energy to take action against the gross mismanagement of the coal procurement process at Eskom," Cobus Schmidt said.

The document, which has reportedly been made available to the DA, is entitled "Forensic Investigation: Claims against Suppliers", and deals with alleged irregularities in the supply of coal to Eskom. Schmidt said the memo demonstrated glaring oversight failures on the part of Eskom.

"The total claims for damages suffered amounts to more than R100-million, but Eskom has yet to take any action against these suppliers.

The memo refers to an investigation carried out by Deloitte and Touche, which revealed that gross irregularities amounting to unlawful, and probably illegal, conduct had taken place on a massive scale over several years.

"In sum, Eskom appears to be entirely incapable of managing the procurement of coal, leading to enormous losses, which ultimately come at the taxpayers' expense.

Then there's the ESKOM 9.7 BILLION Rand loss for the 2009 financial year.

Eskom plunged deeper into the red, reporting a full-year loss of 9.7 billion rand ($1.24 billion) for the 2009 financial year to the end of March, hit by higher coal, maintenance and labour costs, against a revised loss of 168 million rand for the previous year.

The global economic crisis badly hit the utility's ability to borrow, and Eskom was forced to buy coal on more expansive short-term contracts to boost supply last year when the national grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines to shut.

Its loss could further impact the company's rating and its ability to source external funding.

Earlier in the year NUM Workers at ESKOM were awarded a 10.55% wage increase nearly 3.5% below the 14% increase they were demanding. They were told that ESKOM had no money to give a higher increase.

Luckily they found some money to give good ole Jake (Maroga) a nice increase; 26.7%. Oh yes, and performance shares worth around R680 000. Oh, and expect bonus shares in 2011.

When questioned about this, good ole Jake replied that he had not asked for the increase but that it had been decided for him. And by implication thrust upon him.

And maybe by implication as well that he had no option but to accept.

Imagine if he had actually been doing a good job ...