Eskom Development Foundation

Eskom Development Foundation

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Corporate governance

The Board of Directors, as the highest authority in a company, has to be accountable for its governance and for its decisions and actions. There are mechanisms in place to ensure effectiveness and accountability. The Board is subject to regular evaluation with regard to its performance and effectiveness.

Other committees

Audit and Risk Committee

The Audit and Risk Committee is a subcommittee reporting to the Board. It comprises Development Foundation board members and senior managers appointed from Eskom Holding’s divisions.

The role of the Audit and Risk Committee is to assist the Board by performing an objective and independent review of the functioning of the Foundation’s finance and control mechanisms. In addition, the committee has been delegated the task of overseeing the quality, integrity and reliability of the Foundation’s risk management function.

The external and the internal auditors attend meetings of the Audit and Risk Committee by invitation, and have access to the records as well as to the chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee.

The internal audit function is provided by Eskom Corporate Audit, whose main functions are to provide independent assurance and consulting services relating to governance, controls and risk management processes.

Operational committees

The Chief Executive Officer has been delegated the authority to establish such committees as deemed necessary to ensure the effective operation of the Foundation. These have been established and are:

Project Evaluation Committee

The project evaluation committee ensures compliance of grant applications with the Foundation’s policy and grant-making criteria and refines the scopes of work for Eskom’s Procurement department before recommending these submissions to the Investment Committee. The committee comprises managers from Eskom.

Investment Committee

The Foundation uses the Investment Committee to manage the grantmaking activities of the company and within the ambit of its delegated authority. The committee comprises managers from Eskom divisions.

Donations

The donations made are regulated by the Foundation policy, which are philanthropic and strategic donations.

Philanthropic Donations Committee

This committee considers donations to philanthropic and welfare organisations. The objectives of such donations are to alleviate poverty, improve health, welfare and education, and support arts and culture. The committee has the delegated authority to approve the donation of assets written off in the assets registers of Eskom divisions, made available for donation by Eskom to registered education, health and welfare institutions.

The committee comprises managers from the Foundation and Eskom respectively.

Strategic Donations Committee

The strategic donations committee consists of Eskom managers and it approves donations that are deemed of strategic importance to Eskom, a province or in a particular local authority, such as disaster relief.

Eskom Chairman’s Fund

The Eskom Chairman’s Fund makes a number of donations annually; which is administered by the Foundation on behalf of Eskom’s Chairman.

Company secretary

The company secretary provides the Board of Directors with advice on the discharge of their responsibilities and guides them on matters of governance, compliance with relevant laws and ethics. The company secretary also assists in developing the annual board plan. All directors have access to the advice and services of the company secretary. The Board and its committees may take independent advice where necessary.

Project sustainability

Once a grant for a project is approved, an implementation plan is compiled which provides for regular monitoring and mentoring of the project for up to two years, dependant on the nature of the project. Formal reports are compiled on the status and achievements of the projects during structured monitoring sessions.

Prior to withdrawal from a project, a site visit and final evaluation report is concluded. This also focuses on the project’s ongoing sustainability. In the year under review, 81 projects have been funded and will be tested in the new financial year for sustainability using the above principle.

Feedback from these impact assessments provides guidelines as to future focus areas.

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