{"id":166516,"date":"2020-09-23T12:20:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T10:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/lottery-executive-faces-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body\/"},"modified":"2020-09-23T12:20:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T10:20:49","slug":"lottery-executive-could-face-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/lottery-executive-could-face-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Lottery executive could face probe by accountants\u2019 oversight body"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Ashraf%20Hendricks\/general_pictures\/nlc_lotto-3021hr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"2429029213\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lottery-executive-could-face-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A complaint has been laid against chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission, Phillemon Letwaba. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Phillemon Letwaba, chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission, has breached the code of conduct of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, says OUTA.<\/li>\n<li>OUTA\u2019s Stephanie Fick says Letwaba\u2019s conduct in the granting of funding also breaches the Public Finance Management Act.<\/li>\n<li>OUTA has previously laid complaints of racketeering and fraud with the police, naming both Letwaba as well as attorney Leslie Ramulifho.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1RStegRlazzGfhayXRXCPADx_f6LhN0nr\/view?usp=sharing\">complaint<\/a> has been lodged against Phillemon Letwaba, the National Lotteries Commission\u2019s Chief Operating Officer, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saica.co.za\/\">South African Institute for Chartered Accountants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the complaint, Stephanie Fick, head of the accountability division at Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), lists several multimillion-rand Lottery grants involving Letwaba, which she says breach SAICA\u2019s professional code of conduct.<\/p>\n<p>The actions by Letwaba, who is an accountant, a member of SAICA, and the NLC\u2019s accounting officer, are also in breach of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.treasury.gov.za\/legislation\/pfma\/act.pdf\">Public Finance Management Act (PFMA)<\/a>, Fick claims in her complaint, which was lodged last month.<\/p>\n<p>GroundUp has not been able to reach SAICA, but Brendan Slade, OUTA\u2019s legal projects manager, said that he had received an email from SAICA acknowledging receipt of the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOUTA calls for the SAICA Professional Conduct Committee and\/or the Disciplinary Committee to pursue an investigation into the improper conduct of Letwaba,\u201d Fick said in her complaint. She said in 2019 OUTA had investigated \u201ca series\u201d of irregularities in the Lottery\u2019s Pro-Active Funding (PAF) model. Proactive funding, which was introduced in a 2015 amendment to the Lotteries Act, makes provision for the Minister of Trade and Industry or the NLC or its board to identify projects to be funded, rather than via grant applications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn our preliminary findings, we have established a reasonable suspicion that the so-called PAF is being utilised in an illegal manner without the proper executive oversight,\u201d Fick said.<\/p>\n<p>Letwaba has been on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2020-02-13-lotteries-commission-silent-on-coos-leave-of-absence-amid-allegations\/\">leave of absence<\/a>\u201d after being suspended earlier this year, pending the outcome of an <a href=\"https:\/\/citizen.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/investigation\/2237014\/lotteries-commission-appoints-investigator-to-look-into-its-own-alleged-corruption\/\">investigation<\/a> commissioned by its board into alleged corruption at the NLC.<\/p>\n<p>The OUTA complaint refers to Lottery grants including a R10 million grant to Zibsifusion, a non-profit company, to build toilets at several schools in Limpopo. Zibsifusion, which has been dogged by allegations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/zibsifusion-case-study-lottery-corruption\/\">corruption<\/a>, is controlled by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/lawyer-lottery-and-millions-dodgy-grants\/\">attorney Leslie Ramulifho<\/a>, who has been linked to several dodgy Lottery grants amounting to at least R60 million.<\/p>\n<p>Fick said that Letwaba \u201chas peculiar relationships with various grant beneficiaries, which constitutes a conflict of interest\u201d. An example of this was a payment to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/money-lottery-goes-cousin-national-lotteries-commission-boss\/\">Letwaba-linked company<\/a>, by the non-profit organisation I Am Made for God\u2019s Glory (IAM4GG), soon after IAM4GG received a multimillion-rand grant from the NLC, she said.<\/p>\n<p>IAM4GG \u2014 which is controlled by Ramulifho \u2014 received almost R11.4 million to build a brand new sports facility in Limpopo. But a GroundUp <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/lotto-millions-used-minor-renovations-stadium\/\">investigation<\/a> found that only a fraction of the grant was used for minor renovations on an existing stadium, leaving over R11 million unaccounted for.<\/p>\n<p>In the complaint, Fick says Letwaba was in contravention of SAICA\u2019s Code of Professional Conduct because<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>he \u201cfailed to act with integrity by awarding and\/or approving grant agreements \u2026 with the knowledge\u201d that this would benefit him either directly or indirectly;<\/li>\n<li>he failed to take \u201cappropriate steps to inform the relevant authorities, executive, treasury or regulatory body of his conflict of interest in relation to the grant beneficiaries and further failed to disassociate himself with such entities\u201d;<\/li>\n<li>by awarding and\/or approving grant agreements from which he would benefit he \u201ccompromised the principle of objectivity as they were awarded and\/or approved for an ulterior purpose and motive\u201d; and<\/li>\n<li>his abuse of his position as COO \u201cput the accountancy profession in disrepute\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In July, OUTA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/outa-lays-fraud-and-racketeering-complaint-over-lottery-grants\/\">laid criminal complaints<\/a> of racketeering and fraud in against the NLC\u2019s board in connection with several multimillion-rand Lottery-funded projects. Both Letwaba and Ramulifho were named in these complaints, which were lodged in terms of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/documents\/prevention-and-combating-corrupt-activities-act-0?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuPqur7Pv6gIVg-7tCh1epwh7EAAYASAAEgKfW_D_BwE\">Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act <\/a>and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/documents\/proceeds-crime-act?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8JKHhrTv6gIVt4BQBh1fhgzvEAAYASAAEgKcp_D_BwE\">Proceeds of Crime Act<\/a>. SAPS captain MJ Maponya, who is overseeing the OUTA complaint, confirmed to GroundUp that \u201cthe matter is under investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>An email sent to Letwaba\u2019s NLC email requesting comment on the SAICA complaint was responded to by NLC spokesman Ndivhuho Mafela. \u201cPlease send these questions to Mr Letwaba himself,\u201d Mafela said.<\/p>\n<p>We replied with a follow up email explaining that this was the only address that we have for Letwaba. We asked Mafela to forward the mail to Letwaba. Mafela did not respond and it is unclear whether he forwarded the email or not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2020 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lottery-executive-could-face-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A complaint has been laid against chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission, Phillemon Letwaba. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks Phillemon Letwaba, chief operating officer of the National Lotteries Commission, has breached the code of conduct of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, says OUTA. OUTA\u2019s Stephanie Fick says Letwaba\u2019s conduct in the granting of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-166516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/lottery-executive-could-face-probe-by-accountants-oversight-body.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}