Eskom wants R24m from Treasury to buy office chairs – report

Eskom has reportedly “demanded” that Treasury approve the expansion of a contract to buy office at an average of around R2 600 each. The power utility reportedly wanted an extra R24 million to buy 9 217 “operator and visitor chairs”, on top of an existing R72.7-million contract signed in 2013 to supply office and “soft” chairs.

The request would have seen the power utility spend R100 million on chairs, the Sunday Times has reported.

However, Treasury was apparently so suspicious of the request that it conducted a physical inspection of Eskom’s offices and power stations countrywide and apparently only found that only 500  chairs were needed.

“The application just looked wrong and we suspected collusion between Eskom and the service provider. In some cases there was not even enough space to fit the chairs said to be needed,” said a Treasury source who spoke to the publication.

Mzwakhe Gxakwe, CEO of Gxakwes Projects, the company currently contracted to provide office chairs to the power utility, said he could not give details of his contract with Eskom.

“We are not involved in any of the internal processes that involve Eskom and the National Treasury … Chairs ordered have to be approved by senior managers. There’s no one who can create a purchase order unless it goes through the whole process. One office may order one chair and another two. Another may say we need 200 or 300 chairs.”

Eskom had not responded to questions sent to the utility before publishing.