The security firm, has come into come into defence for a contract that Eskom awarded during Andre de Ruyter’s time as CEO, revealing that the contract was only worth R250 million and it did not include any intelligence services.
Initially, the allegations were raised by The Association of Private Security Owners of South Africa (Tapsosa) that De Ruyter flouted procurement processes in awarding an R500 million contract more than three months to Fidelity. The company is demanding an inquiry into the tender processes followed by De Ruyter together with Eskom, and it has now escalated its demands to the relevant Parliamentary oversight committees and the Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
Tapsosa has called for the people that were behind the contract, which includes head of security Karen PPillay, former CEO Andre de Ruyter, and former COO, Jan Oberholzer, to be held accountable. Moreover, it is also looking to investigate how the process took place and how an emergency procurement process was used to pick one provider – Fidelity Security Group.
The company is demanding for details on what informed the decision to award the contract as an emergency procurement of services. More revelation says there were private security providers on site that were already rendering the services, which Fidelity was paid R500 million to provide. There were consultations with security providers under the auspices that there was some intervention needed or extra security that had to be procured, and that it was impossible for Fidelity to implement all the security services Eskom paid for within the three-month contract period.
Eskom recently placed Pillay on precautionary suspension “to allow space for the investigation on allegations levelled against her to continue unhindered,” and it seems like more suspensions may follow. Fidelity did confirm that the group had been awarded a three-month emergency contract with Eskom to provide a comprehensive security solution, and it consisted of a national deployment to cover Eskom generation units and its transmission infrastructure.
Fidelity however, also mentioned that the contract was only worth approximately R250 million over three months, not the alleged R500 million. Before the contract, it was already providing security services to Eskom and other service providers.
Fidelity CEO, Wahl Bartmann, said the contract was awarded based on the Group’s experience managing specialised services within the current National Critical Infrastructure Industry and its national footprint. That included providing land and air support with helicopter and tactical drone surveillance capabilities, specialised armoured personnel carriers, tactical intervention units, access and crowd control.
The security company however, denied reports that it provided Eskom with intelligence services.
