Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB has been fined four million Swiss francs (R75 million) over bribery linked to the construction of a huge power plant in South Africa.
ABB Management Services, which has its headquarters in Switzerland, according to the attorney general’s office agreed that it had not made all reasonable and required arrangements to stop bribe payments to South African authorities.
“Various ABB employees set up from 2013 on a bribery scheme in order to obtain orders, through excessive payments to subcontractors, for the construction of a coal-fired power plant in South Africa,” the attorney general’s office said.
Construction near Johannesburg of the Kusile power station, the fourth largest coal-fired generator in the world, has been fraught with allegations of graft.
“ABB South Africa received orders for a value of at least $200 million with bribery payments of at least 1.3 million Swiss francs,” the attorney general’s office said.
As a result, it stated that ABB had been hit with a fine of four million Swiss francs and imposed a requirement that the company pay 50,000 francs to cover the expense of the proceedings.
According to the attorney general, the company has already paid $104 million as compensation in South Africa.
In response to “criminal conduct” at Eskom, South African authorities said on Thursday that ABB will pay more than R2.5 billion in “punitive reparations” to the country.
US justice department and Securities and Exchange Commission were also expected to resolve with ABB on Friday.
Eight persons, including former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko, were detained in October on suspicion of corruption in connection with a multi-million dollar deal with the Swedish-Swiss company.
