The accountants who aided loot the Lottery

The accountants who aided loot the Lottery

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The Particular Investigating Device has identified five accounting firms that served loot Lottery money. Graphic: Lisa Nelson

The Specific Investigating Unit has determined 5 accounting and auditing corporations that assisted non-income organizations loot Lottery dollars supposed for “good triggers”.
The accounting corporations compiled fraudulent money statements employed by these businesses to make an application for Lottery funding, the SIU instructed Parliament.
Acting chief national investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe claimed the SIU would acquire action to acquire these companies blacklisted.
A 4-calendar year probe by the ตรวจ หวย ลาว วัน นี้ Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU) has exposed 5 accounting and auditing companies that helped dodgy non-gain corporations loot many hundreds of countless rands designed for “good leads to” within the Lottery.

These firms ended up described with the SIU as “Experienced enablers,” who “compiled fraudulent economic statements” that were used by the companies to apply for Lottery funding.

The five firms ended up named in Parliament because of the SIU’s acting chief national investigations officer Zodwa Xesibe. They are really TTP Consulting, Dzata Accountants, Magodi Consulting, Mageba Ntuli Consulting and Tafta Consulting and Accounting Solutions.

Fraudulent financials produced by these five accounting corporations assisted almost 40 organizations get their hands on lottery funding, based on the SIU presentation.

Based on a tool that contains details with all lottery grants since 2002, these providers acquired more than R314-million in funding.

“These NPCs were being funded through the Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) even so the funds weren't utilised for his or her meant reason,” Xesibe advised Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Competitors Portfolio Committee last week.

The SIU, the Hawks along with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) were being in Parliament to report back to the committee on progress in bringing individuals and organisations involved with looting the lottery to reserve.

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

“We want these companies to generally be blacklisted,” she told GroundUp.

To qualify for Lottery funding, an organisation was required to deliver two a long time of yearly economic statements, Xesibe described in Parliament.

However, being an ongoing 6-year investigation into lottery corruption by GroundUp has discovered, hijacked non-profit organisations (NPOs) or new shelf non-earnings organizations (NPCs) without fiscal monitor documents ended up accustomed to apply for funding.

In certain situations, almost similar financial statements were being generated for unrelated organisations, usually with just the names on the organisations changed, GroundUp’s investigation located.

Files submitted by legitimate NPCs for unsuccessful grant applications have been normally employed by new or hijacked NPCs and NPOs to apply for funding. The small print and paperwork in the unsuccessful applicants were being supplied by senior Lottery officers to the dodgy applicants.

With cursory or - often - no verification, these dodgy applicants ended up awarded many rands in grants. In some cases added tranches of resources had been paid out out with no Significantly examining about the development of initiatives.

The vast majority of those grants ended up made by way of proactive funding, which was at the heart in the looting on the lottery. Proactive funding permitted the Minister of Trade, Sector and Levels of competition, or even the NLC at the side of its board, to discover causes to fund without very first necessitating an application. This was stopped when a new NLC board was appointed.

R2-billion in grants less than investigation
SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi claimed the SIU was at this time investigating grants valued at about R2-billion, as well as the device was still consistently receiving suggestion-offs about additional corruption.

He explained to MPs which the SIU’s investigation were damaged into a few phases: the primary, that has been finalised, probed dodgy grants amounting to R280-million, and the next, also completed, involved R247-million. From the 3rd phase, on account of be finalised at the conclusion of the calendar year, the SIU is investigating grants valued at Pretty much R906-million, involving forty NPOs and NPCs, Mothibi reported.

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

The SIU investigation experienced to date resulted in 13 disciplinary referrals to your NLC, and administrative referrals to SARS and the businesses and Intellectual Homes Fee to blacklist persons implicated inside the looting. Issues involving two individuals had been referred on the Lawful Apply Council as well as SA Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The SIU had observed many trends under the preceding NLC board and government - a lot of whom have been implicated in looting - Mothibi instructed MPs.

This included a “trend of collusion in between NLC officials and NPOs and NPCs”, “the hijacking of NPOs and NPCs” and “standard maladministration from the approval of grants,” he said.

Gradual development through the NPA
The SIU has frozen houses, properties, cars and trucks and various assets value tens of hundreds of thousands that were acquired with lottery money, but MPs expressed worry at gradual development in prosecuting Individuals linked to the looting. (The SIU is mandated only to recover assets bought with stolen state money and doesn't have prosecuting powers).

While the SIU has referred fifteen matters on the NPA, thus far only two individuals have been brought ahead of a court. Two Adult males appeared in court docket in Kimberley not too long ago in connection with misappropriated cash collected for your task to fight gender-primarily based violence.

In August 2022 Christopher Tshivule was sentenced to eight decades in prison for his element within a R1.five-million lottery grant fraud. Expenses from two men and women billed with him, who the SIU has described as “kingpins” inside the corruption that confused the NLC, ended up dropped.

Major-Common Mmeli Makinyane, the performing divisional commissioner for precedence offences, instructed MPs which the Hawks were now investigating sixteen lottery corruption-linked circumstances. Yet another a person - the Kimberley make a difference - is ahead of a court docket and two have already been sent for the NPA for a call to prosecute. An extra 5 conditions are being investigated through the SAPS detective and forensic companies, he said.

Conveying the reasons to the hold off in prosecutions, NPA Deputy Nationwide Director Rodney de Kock claimed Portion of The main reason was the Hawks had to do further investigations every time they obtained dossiers with the SIU.

“In essence, the investigations undertaken because of the SIU don't fulfill prison expectations for prosecutions.”

Hence, the NPA experienced to operate with investigators in the DPCI (the Hawks) and SAPS to conduct legal investigations and be sure that the proof meets prison prosecution standards, he reported, incorporating: “That said, the work of your SIU is crucial and contributes drastically to this method.”

De Kock mentioned the SIU’s investigation “often ends in multiple referrals. The referrals could in the long run result in 1 docket and one particular courtroom scenario.”

He claimed that twelve issues, which are “approximately eighty five% complete”, were being remaining jointly investigated via the Hawks and also the SIU’s Specialised Financial Operations Device. (Most of these conditions, 7 of which were lodged in 2020, require former NLC Main working officer Phillemon Letwaba, who resigned less than a cloud in 2022, and Pretoria attorney Leslie Ramulifho.)

De Kock reported the NPA faced many “problems” in prosecuting cases. These, he claimed, incorporated

the lapse of your time involving in the event the offences were committed along with the issuing of your Presidential Proclamation on 1 November 2020;
“unavailability of witnesses and/or documentary evidence” (Previously this yr, the SIU instructed the committee that key documents required in certain prosecutions were deleted through the NLC Computer system process or had long gone missing from Metrofile, a warehouse exactly where copies of files are archived and stored);
The point that some implicated men and women remain utilized by NLC; and
A obstacle for the legality of your Presidential Proclamation by former NLC chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
“The NPA is committed to guaranteeing finalisation in these issues. To this close, a group of committed prosecutors has been allotted to supervise all NLC issues at present beneath investigation,” de Kock reported. “Matters are handled being a precedence. Once [the] investigations are finished, the NPA can make a choice.”

What the companies say (or don’t)
GroundUp was only capable to get comment from one of many five companies accused via the SIU in Parliament of manufacturing fraudulent annual financial statements,TTP Consulting.

Aubrey Moeng, certainly one of TTP’s two administrators, explained within an e mail in response to concerns: “As a result of shopper confidentiality, we prefer to advise that TTP Consulting is not ready to disclose consumers’ financial private info with the public or media … with no consent of the consumer or simply a lawful rationale.”

The organization is actually a “spouse” of many state entities, which includes SARS as well as the CIPC, In line with its Site.

Neither of the two administrators of Dzata Accountants, who're the two outlined as inactive over the CIPC sign-up of companies, responded to emailed inquiries. The company has actually been deregistered through the CIPC for failing to post money statements because 2021.

The sole director of Mageba Ntuli Trading and Consulting Support, Patrick Zulu, died 3 several years in the past, As outlined by Formal information. The business was deregistered because of the CIPC for failing to post money statements due to the fact 2021.

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

GroundUp was unable to find any listing for Tafta Consulting and Accounting Services with the CIPC. We ended up also unable to trace any of the company’s directors to request comment.