SAP admits misconduct in $50 million deals in South Africa
Staff Writer |
German software maker SAP found compliance breaches and “indications of misconduct” in $50 million of public sector deals in South Africa involving the Guptas, friends of former president Jacob Zuma accused of corruption.
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"The central findings confirm that there were payments to Gupta-related entities, indications of misconduct relating to the management of Gupta-related third parties and irregularities in the adherence to SAP’s compliance processes.
"The investigation also confirms that there is no evidence of any payment or attempted payment made to any South African government official or any employee of an SOE in connection with the Transnet and Eskom transactions," the company said.
Outlining the findings of an external legal review of five software deals with state-run electricity firm Eskom and rail-freight company Transnet, SAP said three executives suspended last year had resigned without severance pay.
Eskom said on Thursday it would launch its own probe into the SAP contract.
SAP admitted it paid more than $9 million to intermediary companies controlled by the Guptas. One of the Gupta brothers, Atul, was declared a fugitive from justice and fled South Africa after Zuma was forced out of office by his party last month.
However, the company said there was no evidence of direct payments to South African government officials.
"All South African partners are going through revised due diligence processes. In addition, SAP continues to investigate the public sector business in South Africa going back to 2010. If SAP identifies any further matters of concern, it will address them with the same attention and robustness as the Transnet and Eskom investigations." ■
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