Global consultancy firm McKinsey is ready to return the R1 billion it earned from a flawed deal with Eskom because it does not want tainted money.

This is according to Senior McKinsey executive David Fine who testified before parliament’s inquiry into state capture on Wednesday.

Fine said the firm was willing to repay the money even if a court found that the contract between Eskom and McKinsey was valid, not because they are guilty but because they entered into a relationship with Eskom on good faith and the utility went ahead with the deal without proper approval from National Treasury.

“We are not paying the money because we did something wrong. I just want to be explicit about that.  We went into the relationship with Eskom in good faith, and they told us they had the Treasury approvals for the risk arrangement. The fact that they did not is why we want to give back the money,” he said. “As I state now, I think the contract is valid, because we did real work.”

Fine went on to add that McKinsey had not yet returned the money because it was waiting to find out if the money should be paid back to Eskom or Treasury as the firm does not want to pay twice.

–ANA