Revelations around four years ago of the involvement of  IT firm’s former CEO and other executives in fraudulent payments, improper meddling in tender processes, and paying politicians millions of rands for favours, wrecked the company’s public profile, with regulators threatening harsh action if it did not fess up and clear rot in its ranks. 

Part of the scandal involves evidence EOH had overcharged the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Department of Water and Sanitation for some services. That led to a probe by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and an admission of debt by EOH.

Investors also punished the firm for the governance scandal: EOH’s share price is down around 90% in the last three years. Van Coller, the company’s newish chief executive, has been on a campaign to clear the corruption smear since 2019, launching a forensic investigation led by ENS Africa, and appearing in the State Capture last year. 

In an interview with Business Maverick Coller said the firm had received a letter from the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the government agency in charge of consolidating and coordinating the government’s information technology contracts, on 21 June. 

The letter, according to EOH, “intimated that the SITA would consider restricting EOH from doing business with the public sector” based on a separate forensic audit report to parliament on EOH’s 2016 contract with Home Affairs for a modernisation of its biometric systems. 

Should SITA find EOH wanting, it can recommend that National Treasury bar the IT firm from doing business with the state. Public sector contracts account for around 20% of EOH’s total revenue, and about 10% of profits, van Coller said. Though accounting for a small share of its revenue, van Coller said being blacklisted would see private firms also ditch the firm. 

“In February 2019 already, we went to see the SITA. They were one of the first people we went to,” said van Coller. “We’ve had six engagements with SITA since then. We’ve given them all the information we have. We’ve done the same with the banks, with our OEM partners, and our large customers. And we’ve been successful, none of them have blacklisted us.”   

Last week the company launched civil proceedings against its former CEO and founder, Asher Bohbat, and a number of other executives, suing them for more than R6 billion. It has also refunded the government some of the money it had overcharged. 

   Van Coller said it would not make sense to “paint EOH’s more than 6,500 workers with the same brush because a few people were corrupt”, adding that most of those involved in graft had been dealt with. 

“The criteria to blacklist us doesn’t exist anymore. It did in 2019 but not anymore,” said van Coller. “Even if SITA recommends blacklisting, we’d have the ability to go through a court process. It’s a long process.”

EOH’s stock was down close to 5% on the day to R6,85 per share, with investors clearly rattled by the prospects, however slim, of a blacklisting. DM/BM