The accountants who assisted loot the Lottery

The accountants who assisted loot the Lottery

Blog Article

The Particular Investigating Unit has identified five accounting corporations that assisted loot Lottery cash. Graphic: Lisa Nelson

The Special Investigating Unit has determined 5 accounting and auditing corporations that served non-earnings providers loot Lottery funds meant for “fantastic causes”.
The accounting firms compiled fraudulent monetary statements used by these businesses to apply for Lottery funding, the SIU told Parliament.
Performing chief national investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe reported the SIU would choose action to possess these corporations blacklisted.
A four-calendar year probe because of the หวย หุ้น ช่อง 9 Special Investigating Device (SIU) has uncovered five accounting and auditing firms that served dodgy non-profit companies loot hundreds of many rands intended for “excellent leads to” from the Lottery.

These companies were explained by the SIU as “Qualified enablers,” who “compiled fraudulent economic statements” which were employed by the companies to make an application for Lottery funding.

The 5 companies have been named in Parliament via the SIU’s performing Main countrywide investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe. They're TTP Consulting, Dzata Accountants, Magodi Consulting, Mageba Ntuli Consulting and Tafta Consulting and Accounting Companies.

Fraudulent financials made by these five accounting firms helped almost 40 companies get their arms on lottery funding, in accordance with the SIU presentation.

Based upon a Resource that contains info with all lottery grants given that 2002, these businesses bought in excess of R314-million in funding.

“These NPCs had been funded via the Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) nevertheless the cash weren't utilized for their intended function,” Xesibe told Parliament’s Trade, Business and Competition Portfolio Committee final week.

The SIU, the Hawks as well as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had been in Parliament to report back to the committee on progress in bringing persons and organisations involved in looting the lottery to ebook.

Xesibe explained to GroundUp which the SIU meant to lodge issues from the accounting corporations included and was checking if these companies were registered and, If that's so, with which Specialist bodies.

“We want these corporations to get blacklisted,” she instructed GroundUp.

To qualify for Lottery funding, an organisation was needed to produce two many years of annual economic statements, Xesibe spelled out in Parliament.

However, being an ongoing 6-calendar year investigation into lottery corruption by GroundUp has unveiled, hijacked non-income organisations (NPOs) or new shelf non-income corporations (NPCs) without any fiscal monitor records were being used to submit an application for funding.

In certain situations, almost equivalent fiscal statements were manufactured for unrelated organisations, typically with just the names on the organisations modified, GroundUp’s investigation found.

Paperwork submitted by legitimate NPCs for unsuccessful grant applications ended up often employed by new or hijacked NPCs and NPOs to submit an application for funding. The main points and documents of the unsuccessful applicants were being supplied by senior Lottery officers on the dodgy applicants.

With cursory or - usually - no verification, these dodgy applicants were being awarded many rands in grants. Often additional tranches of money ended up compensated out with out Substantially examining about the progress of tasks.

The vast majority of such grants have been created by way of proactive funding, which was at the guts on the looting in the lottery. Proactive funding authorized the Minister of Trade, Sector and Levels of competition, or even the NLC in conjunction with its board, to establish leads to to fund devoid of initial necessitating an software. This was stopped when a new NLC board was appointed.

R2-billion in grants beneath investigation
SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi claimed the SIU was presently investigating grants valued at above R2-billion, plus the device was however consistently acquiring idea-offs about additional corruption.

He explained to MPs the SIU’s investigation had been broken into a few phases: the 1st, which has been finalised, probed dodgy grants amounting to R280-million, and the second, also done, included R247-million. Inside the 3rd stage, as a result of be finalised at the conclusion of the 12 months, the SIU is investigating grants valued at Nearly R906-million, involving forty NPOs and NPCs, Mothibi stated.

He claimed that the SIU would use “shortly” for the Presidential Proclamation, initially granted in Oct 2020 to analyze corruption involving lottery grants, to be extended to include procurement with the NLC.

The SIU investigation experienced to this point led to thirteen disciplinary referrals to the NLC, and administrative referrals to SARS and the Companies and Mental Properties Fee to blacklist people today implicated in the looting. Complaints involving two people were referred on the Legal Practice Council and the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The SIU experienced observed quite a few tendencies under the former NLC board and government - many of whom are actually implicated in looting - Mothibi advised MPs.

This included a “craze of collusion between NLC officials and NPOs and NPCs”, “the hijacking of NPOs and NPCs” and “normal maladministration within the approval of grants,” he claimed.

Gradual progress from the NPA
The SIU has frozen properties, Houses, cars and trucks along with other assets well worth tens of thousands and thousands that were bought with lottery funds, but MPs expressed issue at gradual progress in prosecuting Individuals associated with the looting. (The SIU is mandated only to recover belongings purchased with stolen state cash and does not have prosecuting powers).

Though the SIU has referred fifteen issues to your NPA, to date only two people have been brought right before a courtroom. Two men appeared in courtroom in Kimberley recently in connection with misappropriated cash gathered for any job to combat gender-based mostly violence.

In August 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to eight yrs in jail for his part within a R1.5-million lottery grant fraud. Fees from two people today billed with him, who the SIU has called “kingpins” from the corruption that overcome the NLC, have been dropped.

Key-Basic Mmeli Makinyane, the acting divisional commissioner for precedence offences, instructed MPs that the Hawks were now investigating sixteen lottery corruption-associated cases. A different one particular - the Kimberley make a difference - is right before a court and two are actually sent to your NPA for a decision to prosecute. A further five conditions are being investigated with the SAPS detective and forensic products and services, he stated.

Detailing The explanations for that hold off in prosecutions, NPA Deputy Nationwide Director Rodney de Kock claimed Element of The key reason why was which the Hawks needed to do even further investigations if they gained dossiers through the SIU.

“In essence, the investigations undertaken from the SIU do not fulfill criminal standards for prosecutions.”

Hence, the NPA had to operate with investigators inside the DPCI (the Hawks) and SAPS to perform criminal investigations and be sure that the evidence fulfills felony prosecution requirements, he claimed, adding: “That said, the operate of your SIU is essential and contributes drastically to this method.”

De Kock claimed which the SIU’s investigation “normally brings about multiple referrals. The referrals may in the end result in 1 docket and one court docket scenario.”

He explained that 12 issues, that happen to be “about eighty five% finish”, have been becoming jointly investigated from the Hawks as well as SIU’s Specialised Economic Functions Unit. (These types of instances, 7 of which were being lodged in 2020, include previous NLC Main operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, who resigned below a cloud in 2022, and Pretoria attorney Leslie Ramulifho.)

De Kock reported the NPA faced numerous “troubles” in prosecuting conditions. These, he said, integrated

the lapse of time in between when the offences had been committed and also the issuing of the Presidential Proclamation on one November 2020;
“unavailability of witnesses and/or documentary proof” (Earlier this year, the SIU explained to the committee that critical paperwork required in certain prosecutions had been deleted from the NLC Computer system program or experienced gone lacking from Metrofile, a warehouse exactly where copies of documents are archived and saved);
The truth that some implicated people are still used by NLC; and
A challenge to the legality on the Presidential Proclamation by previous NLC chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
“The NPA is dedicated to ensuring finalisation in these matters. To this stop, a crew of committed prosecutors continues to be allocated to supervise all NLC issues presently below investigation,” de Kock claimed. “Issues are managed to be a precedence. At the time [the] investigations are done, the NPA could make a choice.”

What the companies say (or don’t)
GroundUp was only capable of get comment from one of several five providers accused via the SIU in Parliament of producing fraudulent once-a-year fiscal statements,TTP Consulting.

Aubrey Moeng, certainly one of TTP’s two administrators, mentioned within an electronic mail in response to inquiries: “Because of consumer confidentiality, we need to advise that TTP Consulting just isn't ready to divulge purchasers’ economical private information with the public or media … with no consent of the shopper or a lawful rationale.”

The corporation is usually a “lover” of quite a few condition entities, which includes SARS as well as the CIPC, In accordance with its Web site.

Neither of The 2 administrators of Dzata Accountants, who're each mentioned as inactive within the CIPC sign up of businesses, responded to emailed issues. The organization has actually been deregistered from the CIPC for failing to submit fiscal statements considering the fact that 2021.

The sole director of Mageba Ntuli Trading and Consulting Services, Patrick Zulu, died 3 several years back, As outlined by Formal data. The corporate was deregistered with the CIPC for failing to submit monetary statements given that 2021.

Matamela Magodi, the only real director of Magodi Consultants, didn't respond to issues emailed to him.

GroundUp was not able to find any listing for Tafta Consulting and Accounting Services Along with the CIPC. We have been also struggling to trace any of the business’s administrators to request remark.