A decision about the Unique Investigation Unit’s (SIU) application to amend the 2020 Presidential Proclamation is predicted by the tip of February.
The original proclamation only authorized the SIU to analyze grants created by the National Lotteries Fee (NLC) involving 1 January 2014 and 7 November 2020.
The SIU is searching for a mandate to investigate lottery-funded initiatives that drop outside the house that period.
It also would like to investigate fraud and corruption related to the NLC’s procurement of companies, which wasn't included lottovip underneath the original 2020 proclamation.
The NLC has had new management and board due to the fact 2022 and has actually been helping the SIU with its investigations.
A choice on the appliance with the Specific Investigating Unit (SIU) to the amendment of the 2020 Presidential Proclamation mandating it to analyze corruption involving the Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) and its workers, is expected by the end of the thirty day period.

This was verified because of the Office of Justice’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi. “The commitment was submitted to your Division late last calendar year and is particularly getting organized for submission towards the Minister to advocate the authorisation of your Modification to the proclamation. A decision could be predicted by the tip of February 2025,” Masibi told GroundUp.

The original proclamation only allowed the SIU to investigate grants made by the NLC amongst one January 2014 and seven November 2020. This left the SIU hamstrung when investigating fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s procurement of services and appointment of services providers, which ran to numerous an incredible number of rand.

In its drive to amend the proclamation, the SIU is trying to get a mandate allowing for it to analyze lottery-funded initiatives that fall outside the house the time period included by the initial proclamation, since the NLC’s corruption continued following the proclamation was gazetted.

Even though the SIU couldn’t right look into procurement, mainly because the original proclamation did not consist of it, it seconded two of its officials to the NLC to assist it in its investigations into dodgy procurement.

GroundUp has also figured out the SIU and the NLC not too long ago signed a new letter of engagement extending the relationship between The 2 entities by a 12 months. Their agreement expired at the end of December 2024.

The NLC’s probe, which incorporates the support in the SIU’s seconded officers and a number of other damning investigations by independent audit providers, suggests the SIU can have a bounce commence inside of a probe into procurement In the event the proclamation is prolonged.

The NLC and the SIU have also been inundated with suggestion-offs. Most are from whistleblowers about dodgy grant and supply chain management fraud and corruption, several of which occurred immediately after November 2020.

The 2020 proclamation contains an exception for that SIU to analyze alleged corruption that occurred in advance of or once the day of its publication …“but is applicable to, connected with, incidental or ancillary for the matters … or involve exactly the same folks, entities or contracts”.

The SIU’s determination also seeks a mandate to investigate fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s source chain administration as well as the procurement of providers.

The SIU previously explained to GroundUp it had been investigating more than seven-hundred dodgy undertaking grants, with more suggestion-offs coming in. Several NLC staff members are dealing with disciplinary fees regarding their alleged involvement in dodgy procurement. Others resigned after they had been charged. The SIU has also noted many of These involved for the police.

In 2022 the SIU informed Parliament’s Trade, Business and Opposition portfolio committee that it had been investigating dodgy lottery grants valued at over R1.four-billion. Previous year SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi explained to the committee that the worth of dodgy grants below investigation experienced grown to over R2-billion.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago declined to touch upon the application to extend the proclamation.

Dodgy procurement
In 2023, the Auditor-Common instructed the NLC’s administration to address “important inside Manage deficiencies determined to further improve procurement and contract administration”. This arrived after the Auditor-Typical’s NLC audit in 2021 uncovered in excess of R23-million in irregular expenditure and R36-million in accounting errors produced in preceding decades. Things worsened the following yr, While using the Auditor-General’s 2022 administration report over the NLC revealing nearly R57-million in irregular expenditure because of the contravention of provide chain management legislation.

Among the problems flagged in damning stories because of the Auditor-Standard, and by auditors appointed by the NLC, were being irregular expenditure on facts technological innovation and sky-higher paying out on legal professionals. The NLC struggled to answer a composed parliamentary problem about its expenditure on lawful charges, as critical data files with details of multimillion-rand litigation expenditure have vanished.

One more place of worry is the tens of numerous rand in paying out on media and communications, which has a disproportionate amount of money compensated into the Sunday Environment newspaper.

A lot of rand in dodgy payments ended up also created to NLC services vendors, together with a R498,000 payment to provider provider Neo Consulting to analyze a computer hack that hardly ever took place.

ProEthics, which advised the NLC on ethics if the organisation was overwhelmed by rampant corruption, was also accustomed to launder payments to service companies. The NLC paid out ProEthics over R28.4-million. The corporate, subsequently, said it paid other support suppliers to the NLC’s instructions — such as a R1.7-million payment to get a flash mob that never ever occurred.

The conclusions of unbiased investigations commissioned through the NLC’s new board and executive are actually critical in formulating disciplinary costs against implicated team, which include NLC organization secretary Nompumelelo Nene.

Nene is billed with alleged irregularities while in the appointments of and payments to several provider vendors. She is additionally accused of furnishing “Fake or incomplete information and facts in submissions justifying deviations from procurement procedures”.