McKinsey ignored staff warnings in Gupta scandal, ex-employees say.

The parliamentary committee is investigating 

whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from 

Eskom be diverted to a Gupta company as a way of securing a 

$78 million contract. 

Image: REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

Global consultancy McKinsey, facing parliamentary hearings in South Africa over payments to a firm controlled by a billionaire family, ignored suspicions raised over several years by local senior staff that companies it worked with were set up to steer state contracts, two former employees said.

Since July, when new information emerged about McKinsey's flagship South African contract, the consultancy has been under increasing scrutiny in a widening corruption scandal over the influence of the Gupta family, businessman friends of President Jacob Zuma.

The parliamentary committee on public enterprises is investigating whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to a Gupta company as a way of securing a $78 million contract to advise Eskom. McKinsey denies wrongdoing and says it intends to cooperate with the authorities if evidence of any impropriety emerges.

By Joe Brock.

Full story at Times Live.