Pretoria - The National Lotteries Board (NLB) has improved significantly and is progressing for the better.
This was the central message that Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies conveyed to the NLB’s Stakeholder Engagement Indaba event that was held for two days at Birchwood Hotel in Ekurhuleni.
Davies told the gathering that in the past, there were very significant delays by the Distributing Agencies in processing applications for lottery funding.
“A poor relationship between the agencies and the National Lotteries Board also resulted in further processes which delayed application. The other time, about R4 billion 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,” said Davies.
He said that the administrative reforms that have been introduced at the NLB have brought a significant turnaround 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,” said Davies.
He said it was expected that in the course of this financial, there will be a pay-in and a distribution of R2 billion of funding, and R1.09 billion would be allocated to charities.
According to the Minister, this will mean that over the lifetime 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, and lack of quorums in the distribution agencies, which affects the efficiency of the distribution agencies.
“To address this, we will appoint full-time distribution agencies. Part-time distribution agencies, we discovered, do not work. People will be appointed based 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,” said Davies.
The Bill is also recommending that the size of the National Lotteries Board be increased to 11 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. – SAnews.gov.za
