The Special Tribunal has confirmed a settlement agreement between System Applications Products (SAP) and the department of water affairs & sanitation.
In terms of the agreement, confirmed as an order of the tribunal by judge Lebogang Modiba on Thursday, multinational software company SAP would pay the department R81.5m within five court days, effective from Thursday.
The tribunal said the Special Investigating Unit, the minister of water affairs & sanitation and SAP reached a final settlement in the remainder of the disputes and matters between them relating to licence agreements in the background and circumstances that led to the conclusion of the 2015 and 2016 agreements.
In March, the tribunal ordered SAP to repay the department more than R400m after it declared invalid and set aside two software licence and support agreement contracts concluded between the department and SAP, worth more than R1bn.
The conclusion of the agreements emanate from an elaborate scheme devised by the employees of SAP, former employees of the department and sale commission partners while they were aware that the 2012 agreement was in place and there was no need for the other two.
The tribunal said the 2015 and 2016 agreements did not comply with the provisions of the constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, Treasury regulations or the department's supply chain management policies.
In March this year, the parties agreed before the tribunal that SAP will pay R263m and the remainder of the amount that was in dispute (R81.5m) would be determined by the tribunal.
SAP has since agreed to pay the full outstanding R81.5m within five court days of the order to the department.
“Consequently, the agreement will extinguish the dispute between the parties and the matter will be finalised,” the tribunal said.
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