Government’s dramatic about-turn on Eskom – withdrawing the audit exemption, and lifting the electricity state of disaster – is welcome, but there is one more crucial step it can take to advance transparency at the national power generator, and better serve the national interest: scrap racially preferential procurement in favour of value for money.
The Institute of Race Relations is taking legal advice on the constitutionality of the decision by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to exempt Eskom from its duty to report fruitless, wasteful, and irregular expenditure going into 2025.
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has cautioned Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana against allowing load-shedding to be used to smokescreen further corruption, and recommends transparent post-BEE value-for-money transactions as the key to unlocking jobs and value growth.
The IRR has requested that Treasury consider implementing a “maximum value-for-money” procurement policy, or at least publish a budgetary analysis of what would be saved by doing so.