The National Lotteries Board (NLB) has improved significantly and is progressing for the better. This was the central message that Minister Rob Davies conveyed to the NLB’s Stakeholder Engagement Indaba event that is held for two days at the Birchwood Hotel in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, Boksburg.
Davies told the gathering that in the past there were very significanct delays by the Distributing Agencies in processing applications for lottery funding. ‘Poor relationship between the agencies and the National Lotteries Board also resulted in further processes which delayed application. There other time about R4 mliion was not distributed to the beneficiaries and this money was the source of the enormous public pressure that people who were playing the Lotto expected the money to be distributed to good causes.’
Minister Davies said that the administrative reforms that have been introduced at the NLB have brought a significance turn around in the performance of the lotteries. ‘This is reflected in the fact that at this moment all the funds that were budgeted for the beneficiaries have been distributed.’
He also said that the anticipation is that in the course of this financial there will be a pay in and a distribution of R2 billion of funding and R1.09 would be allocated to charities. According to the Minister, this will mean that over the life time of the lotteries R16 billion would have been distributed to the various causes which are identified in the Lotteries Act.
Davies also announced that cabinet has approved the Lotteries Amendment Bill for public consultation and urged the participants to submit their inputs.
The Bill is addressing the challenges of accountability, conflict of interest, lack of quorums in the distribution agencies which affects the efficiency of the distribution agencies.
‘To address this we will appoint fulltime distribution agencies, part-time distribution agencies we discovered do not work. People will be appointed base on skills and expertise in the different categories. Also to clear conflict of interest we propose in the Bill that members of the distributing agencies should relinquish all their interests in the organisations that apply for lotteries funding.’
The Bill is also recommending that the size of the National Lotteries Board be increased to eleven members to reduce the capacity constraints of the board. It also says that the chairpersons of the distributing agencies be ex-officio members of the board and that grants be categorised in terms of the value of the grant.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, Department of Trade and Industry
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
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