New Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission, Jodi Scholtz, says the Lottery is looking at ways to compensate whistleblowers and communities wronged by corruption. Photo supplied
"We’re doing it because the NLC has wronged communities and we need to say sorry," the new Commissioner, Jodi Scholtz, told GroundUp in a candid interview. Scholtz also confirmed that the NLC plans to introduce lifestyle audits and integrity testing for all staff"starting from the top … me, the executive and the NLC board".
Among the other luxury properties paid from lottery funds that the Special Investigating Unit has seized are a Pretoria mansion belonging to former NLC board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda, and a luxury home on a golf estate belonging to a trust in which former Commissioner Mampane and her family are beneficiaries.The system was enabled for corruption. It was as if people sat around a boardroom table and planned how to corrupt and steal.
She has also held meetings with former staff who were driven out after they tried to blow the whistle on corruption. "We brought in consultants to compare job descriptions, standard operating procedures and what people actually did. There were lots of disconnections and things that didn’t fit.""Chairs are in a state of disrepair, and locks on toilets are broken. The focus was not on how to help people, but rather on ‘how can I loot?’"In some instances,"people were paid to be quiet and be incompetent," Scholtz told GroundUp.
"We are not able to track grant applications via ID numbers, where one person is involved with multiple NPOs, not necessarily as a director, but who handles the application. The system cannot detect this," Scholtz said. Monitoring and evaluation staff worked on a sampling basis and"were not allowed to touch proactive projects", which did go through the NLC’s computer system, Scholtz said.
The SARS process resulted in apologies and reparation payments to current and former employees affected by the capture of SARS, including people forced out by the witch hunt around the now-discredited claim of a"rogue unit".
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