Confidential SAP contracts ended up in Gupta hands: report
Further investigation into leaked Gupta emails by the Times shows that confidential contracts between state companies and software firm, SAP, landed up in the hands of the controversial family.
According to the Times, the leaked emails show correspondence between senior SAP South Africa officials and their counterparts at Gupta-owned Sahara Computers where some of the confidential information was given.
Other emails show that draft SAP contracts were forwarded directly to the Guptas by their ‘lieutenants’ – business partners, Salim Essa and Ashua Chawla.
Industry experts say that having access to contract information is akin to ‘insider trading’, as it would allow a business to mold itself to be the perfect business partner for government, and secure contracts worth millions, if not billions.
SAP on Tuesday strongly denied that it had engaged in any dodgy business dealings with the Gupta family, after a damning report by amaBhungane revealed that the group had paid a Gupta-owned company R100 million in an alleged kickback.
The money paid to CAD House – which is run as a Sahara subsidiary – was commission for securing R1 billion worth of contracts with Transnet. The terms of the SAP agreement with CAD House was a 10% commission.
However, The Times on Wednesday revealed that email correspondence between SAP and Sahara Computers in March 2015 showed there were confidential meetings with various Sahara company executives at which they discussed, among others, a business rescue plan for CAD House.
SAP entered into the ‘sales’ agreement with the CAD House just months later, when it was still facing business rescue. SAP previously told amaBhungane that CAD House was in the best position to help it sell its services to Transnet, but struggled to say exactly why.
SAP is the third big business name to be drawn into the wider Gupta state capture scandal, after allegations that auditing firm, KPMG turned a blind eye to apparent money laundering and payments around the Gupta wedding, and US consulting firm McKinsey was involved in questionable behaviour with Eskom and Trillian.
Business Leadership South Africa, said that companies who are implicated in any form of state capture need to be held accountable to the highest ethical standards, the law and good governance.
McKinsey, KPMG and SAP have all denied wrongdoing, and the Guptas have remained silent on the email leaks.
Read: The Guptas tried to hijack a company doing big business with government: report
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