South Africa: How Gupta-linked firm scored big by connecting officials and consultants. By Susan Comrie | amaBhungane

Bianca Goodson, the former chief executive of a Gupta-linked consulting firm, has broken her silence 18 months after resigning in dismay. She has released a detailed statement and 65 annexures, charging that her former firm, Trillian Management Consulting, facilitated access to decision makers for consulting multinationals McKinsey and Oliver Wyman. In return for this political capital, she states, Trillian was to get up to half the fees in lucrative consulting contracts with state entities.
Goodson initially started preparing her statement for the expected parliamentary inquiry into state capture, but after repeated delays decided to make it public via the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (Pplaaf).

It is telling that Bianca Goodson’s whistleblower statement starts with the title, “My introduction to; and exit from Trillian”. The former Anglo American manager spent just five months working for the controversial consulting firm. On March 19, 2016, she resigned as the chief executive of Trillian Management Consulting, the consulting subsidiary of Trillian Capital Partners, then controlled by Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa.


"The risks associated with this position, and specifically … with the shareholders of this company, are exceptionally high. Succinctly put – my career would be over if there was ever a public association between myself… Guptas and/or Salim,” her 06:00 resignation letter read. “Although not much, my humble career history has been established on bloody hard work and integrity. I would rather have a future career defined by those attributes than a politically connected one.”

Since then, she has sat on a goldmine of information about Trillian, its special relationship with “captured” officials, and the on-off partnership with consulting giant McKinsey that landed Trillian hundreds of millions from Eskom. “I wanted to speak up sooner, but I was scared... I was 100% out of my depth in terms of the company that I briefly kept,” Goodson told amaBhungane this week.
“When [former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s] team approached me for a statement towards their state of capture report, I was excited because I felt that I finally had the opportunity to do the right thing. “Alas, her report appears to not have been effective in stopping the likes of Trillian… [The parliamentary inquiry] came up as an option and straight away, I started preparing… I've been waiting for Parliament since [but] I don’t believe that I will be called and I feel that I'm not doing the right thing by just waiting and keeping quiet. “So now, I'm doing the right thing, regardless of risk.”

The gatekeeper
Goodson’s disclosures add to the growing body of evidence that suggests that starting in December 2015, Trillian became the gatekeeper of lucrative consulting contracts at some state entities.
If international consulting firms wanted in, they would have to take Trillian as their “supplier development” partner and give it anywhere up to half of the contract. “TMC’s [Trillian Management Consulting’s] business model was that work is secured through [Salim] Essa’s relationships and TMC benefits from these relationships through ‘supplier development’ agreements,” Goodson says in her statement. “As such, TMC did not directly conduct any work with government departments or state-owned entities like Eskom, Transnet or Cogta [the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs]. 

Rather, [Trillian] secured work and thereafter passed the work over to internationally recognised companies and acted as the supplier development partner of choice, with roughly a 50% share of revenues.” This was a symbiotic relationship. The Trillian group was set up in 2015, and although it planned to bring experienced staff on board, the company itself had no track record. As such, TMC needed reputable international companies to act as an icebreaker, bringing Trillian in their wake. 

Trillian denied most of Goodson’s allegations and responded in writing, saying: “Trillian has never held itself out to be a gatekeeper of any institutions and is of the firm view that the skills base of its employees and its history of delivery was sufficient to procure work… Trillian consisted of approximately 80 highly skilled consultants and financial services professionals… Trillian has always followed due process in securing work either directly or in partnership with others. Trillian did not have any advantage over any of its competitors and Trillian had to compete on its offering.”.. 
read more: 
http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Investment-Holdings/whistleblower-how-gupta-linked-firm-scored-big-by-connecting-officials-and-consultants-20170927



Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

Satyagraha - An answer to modern nihilism

Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942)

Three Versions of Judas: Jorge Luis Borges

Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime