SIU applies to extend lottery corruption probe

SIU applies to extend lottery corruption probe

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A call on the Specific Investigation Unit’s (SIU) application to amend the 2020 Presidential Proclamation is expected by the top of February.
The first proclamation only authorized the SIU to investigate grants produced by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) between one January 2014 and 7 November 2020.
The SIU is seeking a mandate to research lottery-funded projects that tumble outside that time period.
In addition it needs to research fraud and corruption relevant to the NLC’s procurement of services, which wasn't included hihuay below the original 2020 proclamation.
The NLC has had new management and board given that 2022 and has become aiding the SIU with its investigations.
A decision on the applying by the Unique Investigating Unit (SIU) with the Modification of a 2020 Presidential Proclamation mandating it to investigate corruption involving the National Lotteries Fee (NLC) and its personnel, is anticipated by the end of your month.

This was verified with the Office of Justice’s spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi. “The drive was submitted for the Office late final yr and is currently being prepared for submission for the Minister to propose the authorisation of the amendment towards the proclamation. A decision is often predicted by the tip of February 2025,” Masibi instructed GroundUp.

The initial proclamation only allowed the SIU to investigate grants produced by the NLC involving 1 January 2014 and seven November 2020. This still left the SIU hamstrung when investigating fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s procurement of companies and appointment of assistance companies, which ran to numerous countless rand.

In its commitment to amend the proclamation, the SIU is in search of a mandate enabling it to analyze lottery-funded tasks that tumble outside the period of time included by the original proclamation, Because the NLC’s corruption ongoing once the proclamation was gazetted.

Even though the SIU couldn’t instantly look into procurement, since the initial proclamation did not incorporate it, it seconded two of its officials on the NLC to help it in its investigations into dodgy procurement.

GroundUp has also uncovered that the SIU and also the NLC lately signed a brand new letter of engagement extending the connection amongst the two entities by a calendar year. Their agreement expired at the conclusion of December 2024.

The NLC’s probe, which includes the assistance with the SIU’s seconded officials and several other damning investigations by impartial audit organizations, means the SIU will likely have a jump start off inside of a probe into procurement In case the proclamation is prolonged.

The NLC as well as SIU have also been inundated with tip-offs. Most are from whistleblowers about dodgy grant and supply chain administration fraud and corruption, some of which occurred right after November 2020.

The 2020 proclamation incorporates an exception for that SIU to research alleged corruption that came about ahead of or after the date of its publication …“but is related to, related with, incidental or ancillary towards the issues … or entail precisely the same individuals, entities or contracts”.

The SIU’s motivation also seeks a mandate to research fraud and corruption involving the NLC’s supply chain administration and also the procurement of solutions.

The SIU Earlier informed GroundUp it absolutely was investigating more than seven hundred dodgy venture grants, with additional tip-offs coming in. Many NLC team are dealing with disciplinary fees with regards to their alleged involvement in dodgy procurement. Other people resigned after they had been charged. The SIU has also reported many of those associated into the police.

In 2022 the SIU informed Parliament’s Trade, Business and Opposition portfolio committee that it was investigating dodgy lottery grants valued at around R1.four-billion. Previous year SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi instructed the committee that the value of dodgy grants less than investigation had developed to above 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 management to deal with “essential inner Command deficiencies identified to enhance procurement and agreement administration”. This arrived once the Auditor-General’s NLC audit in 2021 uncovered a lot more than R23-million in irregular expenditure and R36-million in accounting glitches built in former years. Things worsened the subsequent calendar year, While using the Auditor-Typical’s 2022 administration report to the NLC revealing just about R57-million in irregular expenditure due to contravention of provide chain administration legislation.

Among the the issues flagged in damning experiences because of the Auditor-Standard, and by auditors appointed from the NLC, were being irregular expenditure on data engineering and sky-significant spending on lawyers. The NLC struggled to answer a composed parliamentary concern about its expenditure on lawful service fees, as vital data files with details of multimillion-rand litigation expenditure have vanished.

An additional region of concern is the tens of countless rand in spending on media and communications, which has a disproportionate amount of money paid out on the Sunday Globe newspaper.

Millions of rand in dodgy payments ended up also created to NLC service companies, including a R498,000 payment to provider service provider Neo Consulting to investigate a computer hack that never ever transpired.

ProEthics, which advised the NLC on ethics once the organisation was overcome by rampant corruption, was also accustomed to launder payments to provider suppliers. The NLC paid out ProEthics in excess of R28.4-million. The corporate, consequently, explained it paid out other support providers on the NLC’s instructions — including a R1.seven-million payment for any flash mob that by no means happened.

The results of independent investigations commissioned via the NLC’s new board and government have been critical in formulating disciplinary costs from implicated employees, together with NLC business secretary Nompumelelo Nene.

Nene is charged with alleged irregularities during the appointments of and payments to a number of provider suppliers. She is usually accused of supplying “Fake or incomplete data in submissions justifying deviations from procurement processes”.