Eskom‘s Funding Execution Specialist Sincedile Shweni agrees that he may have misled the South African Reserve Bank (Sars) in the application for the Huarong loan agreement.
Shweni says the Reserve Bank may have not approved the Huarong loan agreement if he had stated all the concerns relating to the transaction.
He says he did not address the concerns about the fees as stated in the term sheet and Huarong’s company structure.
Shweni is appearing before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Inquiry in Parktown, Johannesburg.
The Commission has heard that regular procurement procedures were flouted in the Huarong deal. Shweni told the Commission that Huarong was unfairly favoured during the procurement of its services.
Shweni told the Zondo Commission that former Eskom Executive, Anoj Singh allegedly signed a document with China’s Huarong Energy Africa. The document which was signed against legal counsel and before the utility could solicit a request for proposal.
As a result, Huarong’s proposal could not be evaluated with other proposals.
Shweni says the evaluating committee had to exclude the proposal during its evaluation process and later had to abandon the RFI process. The Funding Execution Specialist also told the Commission that he had neglected to raise his concerns with the South African Reserve Bank.
He says the Reserve Bank may have not approved the Huarong loan agreement if he had. Huarong had asked to be paid R340 million for a facilitation fee.
The commission continues on Tuesday.
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