Eskom has said it will ask McKinsey & Co and Trillian Capital Partners to return “unlawful” payments that the power utility has made under arrangements with the companies.

Eskom is seeking the return of R1bn from McKinsey and R564m from Trillian, it said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. Trillian was the so-called supply development partner of McKinsey in an agreement it had to provide services to Eskom until the relationship between McKinsey and Trillian ended in March 2016.

Eskom is at the centre of allegations that the politically connected Gupta family used their relationship with President Jacob Zuma to win lucrative contracts from state companies. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing. Trillian, a financial services firm, is linked to the Gupta family through business associate Salim Essa, who was its principal shareholder until he sold out in July.

While Eskom previously denied having done business with Trillian, the utility said in July it would commission an independent investigation into work done by the company and disclosed R495m of payments it had made to it.

A spokesman for Trillian didn’t immediately respond to a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.

“The interim findings from Eskom investigations into the circumstances surrounding payments made to both the companies point to certain decisions by Eskom, and resultant payments, as being unlawful,” the company said in its statement. “It is in the public interest to do everything we can as Eskom to claw back all the fees which were unlawfully paid.”

McKinsey met this week with Eskom to discuss the utility’s internal investigations, the US company said in a statement late on Thursday.

‘Encouraged’

“We are encouraged that Eskom is willing to cooperate with us in an independent process to ensure the turnaround programme arrangements were lawful,” it said. “While Eskom’s interim findings centre on the decisions which Eskom took in connection with its compliance with the public procurement regulations, McKinsey is reassured” by some of the details of what Eskom presented.

According to McKinsey, the findings included that:

There was no subcontract between Trillian and McKinsey;
McKinsey informed Eskom on 30 March 2016 that McKinsey was terminating its interactions with Trillian after it failed McKinsey’s due diligence, and Trillian would not be a sub-contractor for McKinsey on the turnaround programme;
McKinsey didn’t authorise any payments made by Eskom to Trillian and such payments were made after McKinsey informed Eskom that Trillian failed due diligence.