South African railway agency Transnet has reached an agreement with Liebherr which is a Swiss-based manufacturing company.
The agreement between Liebherr is about the irregular awarding of two tenders regarding the supply of cranes to Transnet.
News24 has it that 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 a rail agency.
In a statement released on Friday, the investigating unit said the agreement was reached on 31 December 2022 by the SIU, Transnet, and Liebherr.
The aim was to set aside and review the tenders, which were awarded in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The state-owned SIU discovered that the decision to award the tenders was irregular and 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,” reports News24.
“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.”
Additionally, it is widely reported in the country that the cranes under the contract were supplied to Transnet by the Swiss company and are being utilised by Transnet port terminals.
