National Lotteries Launches Six-Year Turnaround Strategy For Modernization, Fraud Prevention

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) announced that its turnaround strategy is in progress and will be fully implemented over the next six years.

During a media briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday, NLC Commissioner Jodi Scholtz said this strategy focuses on modernizing and simplifying processes, improving oversight and adding measures to prevent fraud.

She mentioned that they have been putting in a lot of effort on this strategy, noting that they have been working hard to address stakeholders' frustrations about the long wait for funding, SA News reported.

Scholtz said the commission is also focused on incorporating fraud prevention into their processes, increasing efficiency, and improving the impact of their work through a new grant application and management system.

She also announced that the commission's reparative measures program is now ready to address the harm caused to individuals and communities by past mismanagement. This program will help restore the identified community infrastructure projects to their intended state.

The NLC Commissioner also discussed ongoing improvements to the grant funding processes, which aim to increase efficiency and enhance the experience for applicants and grantees.

These efforts include working with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) to appoint more members for the Distributing Agencies, which will help speed up the decision-making process.

She announced that the Call for Applications for 2024/25 is expected to open at the end of 2024. They also mentioned the revival of Section 2A (3) of the Lotteries Act after the 2022 pause on what was previously called Proactive Funding.

Now called Research-Based Funding (RBF), this initiative includes a stronger policy that ensures transparency at every stage to reduce the internal control issues that existed under Proactive Funding.

The RBF will launch two important programs focused on urgent societal needs in South Africa: food security and primary health care. The Eastern Cape province will be the pilot area for these programs.

Scholtz mentioned that while there is a lot of interest in the Request for Proposals for appointing the Fourth National Lottery Operator, public and media engagement will only happen after the process is fully completed by Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau.