The accountants who aided loot the Lottery

The accountants who aided loot the Lottery

Blog Article

The Unique Investigating Device has discovered five accounting firms that aided loot Lottery funds. Graphic: Lisa Nelson

The Special Investigating Unit has identified 5 accounting and auditing firms that served non-gain firms loot Lottery cash intended for “very good results in”.
The accounting corporations compiled fraudulent financial statements used by these companies to apply for Lottery funding, the SIU instructed Parliament.
Acting chief national investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe said the SIU would take motion to acquire these companies blacklisted.
A 4-12 months probe through the cat888 Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU) has uncovered five accounting and auditing firms that served dodgy non-gain providers loot many hundreds of many rands intended for “great causes” with the Lottery.

These firms were being described because of the SIU as “Skilled enablers,” who “compiled fraudulent financial statements” that were utilized by the businesses to apply for Lottery funding.

The five firms were being named in Parliament through the SIU’s acting chief nationwide investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe. These are TTP Consulting, Dzata Accountants, Magodi Consulting, Mageba Ntuli Consulting and Tafta Consulting and Accounting Services.

Fraudulent financials made by these 5 accounting companies aided virtually 40 organizations get their hands on lottery funding, according to the SIU presentation.

Based on a Software 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 National Lotteries Fee (NLC) however the cash weren't utilized for his or her supposed objective,” Xesibe advised Parliament’s Trade, Field and Competitiveness Portfolio Committee past 7 days.

The SIU, the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had been in Parliament to report to the committee on progress in bringing individuals and organisations involved in looting the lottery to guide.

Xesibe informed GroundUp that the SIU meant to lodge issues in opposition to the accounting firms associated and was examining if these firms were being registered and, If that is so, with which Specialist bodies.

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

To qualify for Lottery funding, an organisation was necessary to produce two yrs of annual fiscal statements, Xesibe explained in Parliament.

Even so, being an ongoing 6-year investigation into lottery corruption by GroundUp has uncovered, hijacked non-financial gain organisations (NPOs) or new shelf non-profit businesses (NPCs) without any economic monitor information have been used to apply for funding.

In some instances, almost equivalent fiscal statements have been made for unrelated organisations, frequently with just the names in the organisations altered, GroundUp’s investigation uncovered.

Paperwork submitted by legitimate NPCs for unsuccessful grant programs were being usually employed by new or hijacked NPCs and NPOs to apply for funding. The small print and files from the unsuccessful applicants have been equipped by senior Lottery officers to your dodgy applicants.

With cursory or - often - no verification, these dodgy applicants had been awarded a lot of rands in grants. From time to time more tranches of money were being paid out out with out A great deal checking on the progress of projects.

The vast majority of those grants were being built via proactive funding, which was at the heart in the looting in the lottery. Proactive funding allowed the Minister of Trade, Marketplace and Levels of competition, or maybe the NLC at the side of its board, to detect leads to to fund without having 1st demanding an software. This was stopped every time a new NLC board was appointed.

R2-billion in grants less than investigation
SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi said the SIU was at present investigating grants valued at above R2-billion, as well as the device was even now consistently obtaining tip-offs about additional corruption.

He told MPs that the SIU’s investigation had been damaged into three phases: the initial, which has been finalised, probed dodgy grants amounting to R280-million, and the next, also done, associated R247-million. Within the 3rd section, due to be finalised at the end of the year, the SIU is investigating grants valued at Virtually R906-million, involving forty NPOs and NPCs, Mothibi reported.

He said which the SIU would use “before long” for that Presidential Proclamation, originally granted in Oct 2020 to analyze corruption involving lottery grants, to generally be extended to include procurement via the NLC.

The SIU investigation had to date brought about thirteen disciplinary referrals into the NLC, and administrative referrals to SARS and the businesses and Mental Attributes Fee to blacklist individuals implicated while in the looting. Problems involving two individuals were referred towards the Lawful Apply Council as well as SA Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The SIU experienced noticed several trends under the preceding NLC board and govt - many of whom are implicated in looting - Mothibi informed MPs.

This provided a “pattern of collusion amongst NLC officials and NPOs and NPCs”, “the hijacking of NPOs and NPCs” and “common maladministration within the acceptance of grants,” he reported.

Sluggish progress via the NPA
The SIU has frozen properties, Attributes, automobiles together with other property well worth tens of millions that were bought with lottery cash, but MPs expressed issue at slow progress in prosecuting those associated with the looting. (The SIU is mandated only to Recuperate assets bought with stolen condition cash and doesn't have prosecuting powers).

Whilst the SIU has referred 15 matters for the NPA, up to now only two people have been introduced before a court docket. Two Guys appeared in court in Kimberley a short while ago in reference to misappropriated cash gathered for the undertaking to beat gender-based mostly violence.

In August 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to 8 several years in prison for his aspect within a R1.five-million lottery grant fraud. Expenses from two folks billed with him, who the SIU has called “kingpins” during the corruption that confused the NLC, had been dropped.

Key-Standard Mmeli Makinyane, the acting divisional commissioner for precedence offences, instructed MPs the Hawks had been at present investigating sixteen lottery corruption-related conditions. A different one particular - the Kimberley issue - is in advance of a courtroom and two are already sent to your NPA for a decision to prosecute. A further five instances are increasingly being investigated from the SAPS detective and forensic products and services, he stated.

Outlining The explanations for your hold off in prosecutions, NPA Deputy Countrywide Director Rodney de Kock said Section of the reason was the Hawks needed to do additional investigations when they acquired dossiers in the SIU.

“In essence, the investigations undertaken with the SIU will not fulfill legal expectations for prosecutions.”

For that reason, the NPA had to operate with investigators during the DPCI (the Hawks) and SAPS to carry out prison investigations and be sure that the evidence fulfills prison prosecution expectations, he said, including: “Having said that, the function on the SIU is important and contributes drastically to this method.”

De Kock reported which the SIU’s investigation “typically brings about multiple referrals. The referrals could eventually end in a person docket and 1 court case.”

He stated that twelve matters, which might be “approximately eighty five% finish”, were remaining jointly investigated with the Hawks along with the SIU’s Specialised Economic Functions Unit. (Many of these cases, seven of which were being lodged in 2020, entail previous NLC Main working officer Phillemon Letwaba, who resigned less than a cloud in 2022, and Pretoria lawyer Leslie Ramulifho.)

De Kock mentioned the NPA faced quite a few “difficulties” in prosecuting situations. These, he claimed, involved

the lapse of your time involving in the event the offences were being fully commited as well as issuing from the Presidential Proclamation on one November 2020;
“unavailability of witnesses and/or documentary proof” (Previously this 12 months, the SIU instructed the committee that critical paperwork necessary in some prosecutions were deleted through the NLC Laptop method or experienced long gone missing from Metrofile, a warehouse wherever copies of documents are archived and stored);
The reality that some implicated people are still utilized by NLC; and
A obstacle to the legality in the Presidential Proclamation by former NLC chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
“The NPA is devoted to guaranteeing finalisation in these issues. To this close, a team of dedicated prosecutors continues to be allocated to supervise all NLC issues at this time less than investigation,” de Kock claimed. “Issues are dealt with as being a precedence. At the time [the] investigations are concluded, the NPA can make a decision.”

What the businesses say (or don’t)
GroundUp was only capable of get remark from one of several five corporations accused through the SIU in Parliament of manufacturing fraudulent annual fiscal statements,TTP Consulting.

Aubrey Moeng, certainly one of TTP’s two directors, claimed within an e-mail in response to issues: “Because of consumer confidentiality, we prefer to recommend that TTP Consulting is not really willing to disclose clients’ monetary confidential information with the public or media … with no consent with the customer or maybe a authorized purpose.”

The organization is a “partner” of quite a few condition entities, such as SARS as well as CIPC, As outlined by its Site.

Neither of The 2 directors of Dzata Accountants, who're equally listed as inactive about the CIPC sign up of organizations, responded to emailed issues. The company has become deregistered via the CIPC for failing to post financial statements given that 2021.

The only director of Mageba Ntuli Buying and selling and Consulting Provider, Patrick Zulu, died 3 a long time in the past, In accordance with official documents. The corporation was deregistered because of the CIPC for failing to submit monetary statements because 2021.

Matamela Magodi, the only real director of Magodi Consultants, did not reply to queries emailed to him.

GroundUp was struggling to uncover any listing for Tafta Consulting and Accounting Solutions While using the CIPC. We have been also struggling to trace any of the organization’s directors to request remark.