Business: South Africa attempts to recover more than R400 m from SAP on ‘unlawful’ contracts

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:35 pm

South African investigators are seeking to recover more than R400 million from German software program firm SAP for two government contracts they allege have been entered into unlawfully, court docket documents considered through Reuters show.

Although the quantity of cash sought is small for a organisation with a market fee of round 162 billion euros, the go by way of the authorities is some other headache for SAP, which in 2018 admitted to misconduct over offers with South African nation firms at some point of former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.

SAP, a foremost global commercial enterprise software program company, had stated it was reviewing all its public sector deals in South Africa courting again to 2010, but it has now not publicly flagged wrongdoing over the agreements in 2015 and 2016 with the Department of Water and Sanitation.

Investigators say these contracts need to be declared invalid because authorities guidelines had been contravened, according to the court docket papers, stated here for the first time.

SAP did not comment on the specific allegations. In a declaration to Reuters the employer said: “SAP continues to cooperate with South African authorities/law enforcement and stays committed to the highest requirements of enterprise ethics.”

“Our policy is, and constantly will be, to carry out all agency activities in accordance with the letter and spirit of applicable laws.”

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is investigating the contracts, informed Reuters that evidence pointing to contravention of guidelines by water ministry officials had been referred to prosecutors.

The SIU has been probing SAP’s work for the water ministry for roughly two years, after President Cyril Ramaphosa permitted inquiries into possible procurement irregularities and corruption.

(News24)