A call around the Exclusive Investigation Unit’s (SIU) application to amend the 2020 Presidential Proclamation is expected by the tip of February.
The original proclamation only authorized the SIU to investigate grants produced by the Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) between one January 2014 and 7 November 2020.
The SIU is searching for a mandate to investigate lottery-funded projects that tumble outside that period of time.
In addition, it wishes to investigate fraud and corruption connected with the NLC’s procurement of services, which was not protected สลาก กิน under the original 2020 proclamation.
The NLC has had new management and board due to the fact 2022 and has been assisting the SIU with its investigations.
A call on the applying via the Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU) to the amendment of a 2020 Presidential Proclamation mandating it to research corruption involving the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) and its staff, is expected by the end from the month.

This was verified via the Office of Justice’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi. “The commitment was submitted towards the Section late last yr and it is staying ready for submission into the Minister to suggest the authorisation of your amendment on the proclamation. A call is often predicted by the top of February 2025,” Masibi told GroundUp.

The original proclamation only allowed the SIU to research grants created by the NLC concerning one January 2014 and seven November 2020. This still left the SIU hamstrung when investigating fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s procurement of expert services and appointment of company providers, which ran to many many rand.

In its drive to amend the proclamation, the SIU is trying to get a mandate allowing for it to analyze lottery-funded jobs that slide outside the interval lined by the original proclamation, since the NLC’s corruption continued once the proclamation was gazetted.

Although the SIU couldn’t right investigate procurement, simply because the first proclamation didn't include things like it, it seconded two of its officers to the NLC to assist it in its investigations into dodgy procurement.

GroundUp has also uncovered the SIU as well as NLC just lately signed a completely new letter of engagement extending the connection in between the two entities by a year. Their agreement expired at the conclusion of December 2024.

The NLC’s probe, which includes the support of your SIU’s seconded officers and a number of other damning investigations by independent audit firms, suggests the SIU should have a leap begin in a probe into procurement In case the proclamation is prolonged.

The NLC as well as the SIU have also been inundated with idea-offs. Most are from whistleblowers about dodgy grant and supply chain management fraud and corruption, many of which transpired just after November 2020.

The 2020 proclamation involves an exception for your SIU to research alleged corruption that befell before or after the date of its publication …“but is relevant to, connected with, incidental or ancillary towards the matters … or contain exactly the same persons, entities or contracts”.

The SIU’s motivation also seeks a mandate to investigate fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s supply chain administration along with the procurement of expert services.

The SIU Formerly told GroundUp it had been investigating more than seven hundred dodgy project grants, with extra tip-offs coming in. Various NLC workers are struggling with disciplinary costs regarding their alleged involvement in dodgy procurement. Many others resigned when they were charged. The SIU has also documented a lot of People associated towards the police.

In 2022 the SIU told Parliament’s Trade, Field and Opposition portfolio committee that it absolutely was investigating dodgy lottery grants valued at about R1.four-billion. Very last 12 months SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi advised the committee that the value of dodgy grants underneath investigation had grown to around R2-billion.

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

Dodgy procurement
In 2023, the Auditor-Common instructed the NLC’s administration to address “significant internal Command deficiencies recognized to further improve procurement and contract management”. This came following the Auditor-Typical’s NLC audit in 2021 uncovered in excess of R23-million in irregular expenditure and R36-million in accounting errors manufactured in past years. Things worsened the subsequent year, Together with the Auditor-Normal’s 2022 management report about the NLC revealing virtually R57-million in irregular expenditure due to contravention of offer chain management laws.

Among the issues flagged in damning reports by the Auditor-Standard, and by auditors appointed from the NLC, ended up irregular expenditure on info technological know-how and sky-large expending on legal professionals. The NLC struggled to reply a composed parliamentary problem about its expenditure on lawful charges, as essential documents with details of multimillion-rand litigation expenditure have vanished.

One more place of issue will be the tens of a lot of rand in expending on media and communications, with a disproportionate amount compensated on the Sunday Entire world newspaper.

An incredible number of rand in dodgy payments had been also manufactured to NLC services vendors, like a R498,000 payment to services company Neo Consulting to investigate a computer hack that never took place.

ProEthics, which encouraged the NLC on ethics when the organisation was overwhelmed by rampant corruption, was also utilized to launder payments to services companies. The NLC paid out ProEthics about R28.four-million. The company, in turn, claimed it compensated other assistance suppliers to the NLC’s instructions — such as a R1.7-million payment for a flash mob that never transpired.

The results of unbiased investigations commissioned via the NLC’s new board and government are critical in formulating disciplinary expenses against implicated staff members, which includes NLC company secretary Nompumelelo Nene.

Nene is charged with alleged irregularities within the appointments of and payments to various support suppliers. She is also accused of delivering “Phony or incomplete details in submissions justifying deviations from procurement processes”.