The accountants who aided loot the Lottery
The accountants who aided loot the Lottery
Blog Article
The Unique Investigating Device has determined 5 accounting firms that served loot Lottery money. Graphic: Lisa Nelson
The Particular Investigating Device has recognized five accounting and auditing firms that aided non-gain firms loot Lottery dollars meant for “very good will cause”.
The accounting companies compiled fraudulent monetary statements utilized by these companies to apply for Lottery funding, the SIU advised Parliament.
Acting Main nationwide investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe stated the SIU would consider action to have these corporations blacklisted.
A 4-yr probe by the ผล หวย Unique Investigating Device (SIU) has exposed 5 accounting and auditing corporations that helped dodgy non-financial gain providers loot countless countless rands intended for “superior triggers” through the Lottery.
These companies ended up explained because of the SIU as “Skilled enablers,” who “compiled fraudulent financial statements” which were used by the companies to submit an application for Lottery funding.
The five firms were being named in Parliament from the SIU’s performing Main national investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe. They are TTP Consulting, Dzata Accountants, Magodi Consulting, Mageba Ntuli Consulting and Tafta Consulting and Accounting Solutions.
Fraudulent financials produced by these 5 accounting companies aided almost 40 organizations get their hands on lottery funding, based on the SIU presentation.
According to a Instrument containing details with all lottery grants considering that 2002, these companies received around R314-million in funding.
“These NPCs were funded through the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) nevertheless the money were not made use of for their meant objective,” Xesibe told Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Competition Portfolio Committee past week.
The SIU, the Hawks as well as National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) have been in Parliament to report back to the committee on development in bringing individuals and organisations linked to looting the lottery to guide.
Xesibe informed GroundUp the SIU meant to lodge issues versus the accounting corporations involved and was checking if these firms ended up registered and, if so, with which Specialist bodies.
“We wish these businesses to get blacklisted,” she explained to GroundUp.
To qualify for Lottery funding, an organisation was necessary to create two several years of yearly financial statements, Xesibe discussed in Parliament.
Nevertheless, as an ongoing six-year investigation into lottery corruption by GroundUp has revealed, hijacked non-revenue organisations (NPOs) or new shelf non-earnings firms (NPCs) without any economic monitor information ended up accustomed to apply for funding.
In certain occasions, Just about identical economical statements ended up generated for unrelated organisations, generally with only the names of your organisations improved, GroundUp’s investigation found.
Documents submitted by real NPCs for unsuccessful grant programs were being usually used by new or hijacked NPCs and NPOs to apply for funding. The main points and paperwork with the unsuccessful applicants have been supplied by senior Lottery officers on the dodgy applicants.
With cursory or - typically - no verification, these dodgy applicants have been awarded numerous rands in grants. Often further tranches of cash had been compensated out with no much checking about the development of projects.
The vast majority of those grants were being created by using proactive funding, which was at the guts of the looting in the lottery. Proactive funding permitted the Minister of Trade, Field and Level of competition, or maybe the NLC together with its board, to discover brings about to fund devoid of initially demanding an application. This was stopped whenever a new NLC board was appointed.
R2-billion in grants beneath investigation
SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi explained the SIU was now investigating grants valued at about R2-billion, as well as unit was still on a regular basis receiving suggestion-offs about extra corruption.
He instructed MPs which the SIU’s investigation were broken into 3 phases: the primary, that has been finalised, probed dodgy grants amounting to R280-million, and the second, also completed, concerned R247-million. During the 3rd phase, resulting from be finalised at the conclusion of the 12 months, the SIU is investigating grants valued at almost R906-million, involving 40 NPOs and NPCs, Mothibi reported.
He reported the SIU would implement “shortly” for that Presidential Proclamation, at first granted in Oct 2020 to analyze corruption involving lottery grants, to generally be extended to incorporate procurement by the NLC.
The SIU investigation experienced thus far brought about 13 disciplinary referrals towards the NLC, and administrative referrals to SARS and the businesses and Intellectual Attributes Commission to blacklist people today implicated during the looting. Grievances involving two individuals had been referred into the Legal Observe Council and also the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants.
The SIU had noticed several developments beneath the past NLC board and govt - most of whom have already been implicated in looting - Mothibi informed MPs.
This incorporated a “trend of collusion amongst NLC officials and NPOs and NPCs”, “the hijacking of NPOs and NPCs” and “general maladministration during the approval of grants,” he claimed.
Slow progress from the NPA
The SIU has frozen residences, properties, automobiles as well as other property truly worth tens of hundreds of thousands that were bought with lottery money, but MPs expressed worry at sluggish development in prosecuting All those linked to the looting. (The SIU is mandated only to Get better property bought with stolen state funds and doesn't have prosecuting powers).
Though the SIU has referred 15 matters to the NPA, to this point only two individuals have been brought prior to a court docket. Two Adult men appeared in court in Kimberley lately in reference to misappropriated money gathered for a job to overcome gender-based violence.
In August 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to eight yrs in jail for his component in a very R1.five-million lottery grant fraud. Fees against two men and women billed with him, who the SIU has called “kingpins” inside the corruption that confused the NLC, were dropped.
Key-Typical Mmeli Makinyane, the performing divisional commissioner for priority offences, advised MPs the Hawks ended up at the moment investigating sixteen lottery corruption-linked cases. Yet another just one - the Kimberley matter - is prior to a court and two have already been despatched into the NPA for a call to prosecute. An additional 5 situations are being investigated by the SAPS detective and forensic solutions, he said.
Outlining the reasons for your delay in prosecutions, NPA Deputy Nationwide Director Rodney de Kock reported A part of The rationale was which the Hawks needed to do additional investigations every time they obtained dossiers within the SIU.
“In essence, the investigations carried out by the SIU don't satisfy legal criteria for prosecutions.”
Therefore, the NPA had to work with investigators inside the DPCI (the Hawks) and SAPS to carry out felony investigations and make sure that the evidence meets criminal prosecution expectations, he explained, including: “That said, the work of the SIU is essential and contributes significantly to this process.”
De Kock said which the SIU’s investigation “generally ends in several referrals. The referrals may eventually bring about just one docket and one particular court situation.”
He reported that 12 issues, which can be “somewhere around eighty five% complete”, had been getting jointly investigated by the Hawks as well as the SIU’s Specialised Economic Functions Unit. (The majority of these instances, 7 of which ended up lodged in 2020, include previous NLC Main operating officer Phillemon Letwaba, who resigned beneath a cloud in 2022, and Pretoria lawyer Leslie Ramulifho.)
De Kock mentioned the NPA confronted a number of “troubles” in prosecuting cases. These, he explained, bundled
the lapse of your time between when the offences were committed and also the issuing in the Presidential Proclamation on 1 November 2020;
“unavailability of witnesses and/or documentary proof” (Before this 12 months, the SIU advised the committee that essential paperwork essential in a few prosecutions had been deleted from your NLC Laptop program or experienced absent lacking from Metrofile, a warehouse the place copies of documents are archived and stored);
the fact that some implicated people today are still used by NLC; and
A challenge on the legality of your Presidential Proclamation by former NLC chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
“The NPA is committed to guaranteeing finalisation in these issues. To this finish, a staff of dedicated prosecutors has become allotted to supervise all NLC issues currently under investigation,” de Kock stated. “Matters are handled being a precedence. After [the] investigations are concluded, the NPA could make a call.”
What the businesses say (or don’t)
GroundUp was only able to get comment from among the list of five organizations accused through the SIU in Parliament of producing fraudulent once-a-year economical statements,TTP Consulting.
Aubrey Moeng, considered one of TTP’s two directors, stated within an e-mail in reaction to queries: “Because of customer confidentiality, we want to recommend that TTP Consulting just isn't prepared to divulge shoppers’ economic confidential details with the general public or media … with no consent from the customer or perhaps a authorized reason.”
The business is usually a “partner” of a number of condition entities, which includes SARS plus the CIPC, In keeping with its Web-site.
Neither of the two administrators of Dzata Accountants, who're both stated as inactive within the CIPC sign up of firms, responded to emailed questions. The business has been deregistered through the CIPC for failing to submit money statements since 2021.
The sole director of Mageba Ntuli Trading and Consulting Services, Patrick Zulu, died three a long time ago, In line with official records. The company was deregistered from the CIPC for failing to post money statements due to the fact 2021.
Matamela Magodi, the only director of Magodi Consultants, didn't respond to questions emailed to him.
GroundUp was not able to locate any listing for Tafta Consulting and Accounting Solutions While using the CIPC. We have been also struggling to trace any of the business’s administrators to request comment.