Global consultancy firm McKinsey announced on Tuesday that it will repay fees it earned from Eskom on a contract linked to the Gupta business family if a court determines that the power utility had acted unlawfully.

The firm said in a statement that it stood by the work that it did for Eskom according to a report by Fin24.

“We believe our work on the turnaround programme created substantial value, helping improve operating performance by, among other things, increasing plant availability and reducing contractor claims on the new build programme.”

According to the report the firm said that Eskom had advised the consultancy that it believed it violated procurement regulations and its internal procedures in the formation of the contract, and that decisions it took with respect to the contract may have been taken without proper authorisation.

The state-owned power utility had given McKinsey and its local partner Trillian until Tuesday to repay the R1.6 billion in consultancy fees.