Question NW1109 to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition
22 June 2020 - NW1109
Waters, Mr M to ask the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition
(1)What (a) are the names of the top 50 organisations in the past 10 financial years that received the highest amount of funding from the National Lottery and (b) was the value of funding in each case in each specified financial year; (2) Whether the National Lottery has conducted audits on the specified organisations to ensure that the money allocated in the specified financial years was indeed spent on what was stated; if so, (a) which organisations and/or entities were audited, (b) in which year and (c) what were the adverse findings? NW1405E
Reply:
Following an initial reply from the NLC setting out the reasons why they will not be able to provide the requested information within the available time before the Parliamentary Reply was due and requesting additional time, kindly find the supplementary reply submitted by Ms Thabang Mampane, Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission, which is reproduced below.
“The names of top 50 funded organisations and the amounts are highlighted on the attached list (See Annexure A). The NLC has a fully-fledged Monitoring and Evaluation Department that monitors implementation and outcomes of funded projects. All funded organisations signs a Grant Agreement with the NLC with terms and conditions relating to how the grants are to be used. The NLC follows up on these conditions and applies its internal policies in cases on non-compliance. The NLC has sourced the services of a panel of engineers responsible to assist in providing NLC with quality assurance reviews on funded infrastructure projects. The Office of the Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) also conducts in-depth audit into NLC’s funding process. In recent years, the NLC received a negative media coverage from an on-line media publication (GroudUp) alleging a wide range of corruption in relation to certain projects that were funded by the organisation. The NLC Board appointed an audit firm, Sekela Xabiso to investigate the alleged corruption and the investigation is on-going. In addition to that, the Honorable Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition has also appointed an audit firm, Nexia, SAB&T to investigate the same allegations and the investigation is on-going as well. All findings from the relevant assurance bodies (audit/investigation) are/will be analysed and reviewed in order to ensure that proper remedial actions are implemented.”