Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and Transnet have reached a settlement agreement with Liebherr, a Swiss-based equipment manufacturing company, over the irregular awarding of two tenders for the supply of cranes to Transnet.
The SIU said on Friday the agreement was reached on 31 December 2022 by the SIU, Transnet and Liebherr to set aside and review the tenders, which were awarded in 2013 and 2014. The SIU found that the decision to award the tenders was irregular.
It is envisaged that the review application will be launched this year.
At around the same time that the tenders were awarded, Liebherr made a $3.2 million, or R54 million, payment to a sales agent called Accurate Investments Limited. Accurate Investments has been linked by AmaBhungane to a series of kickback schemes allegedly linked to the Gupta family.
The total sum that Liebherr paid to the sales agent has been repaid to Transnet as part of the settlement, despite the SIU finding no evidence that the payments made were corrupt or fraudulent. Liebherr agreed to repay the sum on a without prejudice basis, which refers to it retaining its legal rights.
The settlement provides for an audit of the supplier development obligations under the contracts, which could reveal whether Transnet suffered any losses from the contracts. The settlement provides a mechanism for the matter to be resolved if it is shown that Transnet suffered losses.
All the cranes under the contract were supplied to Transnet by Liebherr and are being used by Transnet port terminals.
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