By Staff Writer

A second major German software company has found itself entangled in an apparent Gupta kickback scandal to secure government contracts.

News24, AmaBhungane and Scorpio reported on Tuesday morning that the Gupta email leaks show that Software AG entered into a deal with Gupta linked Global Softech Solutions (GSS) in a bid to win a R180m contract from Transnet.

Software AG is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany and boasts worldwide revenue of over €850m. The company’s South African arm is based in Bryanston, Johannesburg. Its implication in the Gupta email leaks could be another reason for strict German regulators to take a closer look at its companies’ behaviour in South Africa, potentially opening a can of worns for cronies connected to the Guptas The report on News24 indicates that the Guptas’ Sahara Systems would formally take shareholding in GSS in September 2015 and then subsequently have a say in the company despite ownership changes.

A character who is central to the latest German company’s entanglement with the Guptas is a “high-powered” sales director for Software AG, Riaaz Jeena.

See Riaaz Jeena’s LinkedIn profile.

Jeena appears to have gone rogue by creating “a second sales commission agreement seemingly to ensure that he too would receive a slice of the pie” regarding key deals involving Software AG and GSS.

“Software AG sales director Riaaz Jeena now also had an additional connection to GSS – in April, his wife, Fehmeda Alibhai, had started working for Sahara Systems. Minutes show Alibhai was now present in all the GSS monthly meetings where the Software AG deals were discussed,” reads the report.

“The question is what GSS brought to the party to justify the more than R100m in commissions it expected to make according to its budget.

“The commission agreement that Software AG would eventually sign with GSS allowed GSS to claim ‘referral fees’ and ‘sales assist fees’ for helping Software AG identify leads and helping Software AG close these deals,” the report goes on to add.

Meanwhile, the Gupta web gets more intricate as the report further highlights strong links between infamous letterbox company Homix and GSS. Homix is at the centre of kickback allegations involving a Neotel-Transnet deal and has been shown to be linked to the Guptas.

One such deal, in 2015, involved Software AG having paid R3.8m to GSS with the reference ‘MultiChoice deal’. MultiChoice had signed on Software AG in an IT deal.

“The following day, GSS made two payments: One of R1.71m (R1.5m plus VAT) to Sensational Signs and another of R1.48m to a company called Forsure Consultants. Both listed as a reference ‘MultiChoice deal’,” reads the report.

“Little is known about Forsure Consultants except that it shares an address in Mayfair and a former director with Homix,” adds the report.

The notion that GSS is little more than a front that actually does little on-the-ground is further entrenched by the fact that the likes of MultiChoice said it had never heard of the company.

Similar to SAP

When it comes to tapping the Guptas to win state contracts, the strategy employed by Software AG is similar to that of SAP.

SAP’s European head office is currently investigating a deal in which it paid R100m to a company called CAD Systems — a Gupta-linked, self-proclaimed 3D printing company — to help win Transnet deals.

Four SAP South Africa managers have been suspended and the company investigation is ongoing.

The report from News24, AmaBhungane and Scorpio highlights how a “commission agreement comes across as stage-managed to disguise payments to politically-connected people”.

Software AG has denied allegations of corruption and has said it conducts business ethically.

It’s unclear at this stage if the company’s European headquarters, like that of SAP’s, will step in and take action.

(Visited 5 times, 1 visits today)