{"id":302594,"date":"2019-03-01T07:10:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T05:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=302594"},"modified":"2019-03-01T07:11:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T05:11:20","slug":"sap-accused-of-improper-conduct-over-east-africa-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/enterprise\/302594\/sap-accused-of-improper-conduct-over-east-africa-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"SAP accused of ‘improper conduct’ over East Africa contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAP SE has been accused of \u201cimproper conduct\u201d related to dealings by a services partner to win state contracts in Kenya and Tanzania, a claim that could plunge the German software giant into a second African corruption scandal in as many years.<\/p>\n

The graft allegations, which are being investigated by US authorities, relate to deals in 2014 and 2015, the Walldorf-based company said in an emailed statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

SAP and Twenty Third Century Systems, a partner across Africa and the Middle East, have since made management changes and strengthened compliance, SAP said.<\/p>\n

The news comes a year after SAP said it paid 128.6 million rand ($9.2 million) to companies linked to South Africa\u2019s Gupta family, who are accused of numerous cases of state-related corruption.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the company in relation to those deals as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur policy is, and always will be, to carry out all company activities in accordance with the letter and spirit of applicable laws,\u201d SAP said.<\/p>\n

The fresh allegations were first reported by South African website TechCentral, which said TTCS allegedly bribed officials at the Tanzania Ports Authority with $800,000 to win a $6.6 million contract. The claims were made by a whistleblower and lodged in the US, according to the website.<\/p>\n

SAP\u2019s partner, TTCS, is 49 percent owned by EOH Holdings Ltd, a Johannesburg-based IT firm that\u2019s already embroiled in allegations of corruption regarding South African government contracts.<\/p>\n

The latest claims relate to a time before its investment in TTCS, and EOH was unaware of them when agreeing to the deal, an EOH spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was before our time and we have provided SAP with any information we have on the matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

SAP shares closed 0.4% higher at 94.20 euros at the close in Frankfurt, valuing the company at 115 billion euros.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Ramaphosa approves new investigation into dodgy SAP deals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAP SE has been accused of \u201cimproper conduct\u201d related to dealings by a services partner to win state contracts in Kenya and Tanzania, a claim that could plunge the German software giant into a second African corruption scandal in as many years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":184965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13700],"tags":[26,1073],"class_list":["post-302594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enterprise","tag-headline","tag-sap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302596,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302594\/revisions\/302596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}