NATIONAL NEWS - Abandoned infrastructure projects funded by the National Lotteries Commission, including four old-age homes and a drug rehabilitation centre, will finally be completed, years after tens of millions of rands intended for their construction were looted.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has allocated nearly R65 million to finish several multi-million rand infrastructure projects that were left incomplete after Lottery grants went missing.
These funds will be paid directly to the engineering firms commissioned by the NLC instead of the non-profit companies (NPCs) or non-profit organisations (NPOs) that were initially supposed to fund the projects.
Details of additional funding for the unfinished projects, which are all currently being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Hawks, are included in the NLC’s latest annual report, which was presented to Parliament by its new board last week.
Over R240 million, including the latest grants, has now been allocated for these projects in need of completion.
Most of these unfinished projects initially received “proactive” funding, which was at the heart of the looting of the Lottery and has now been suspended. Proactive funding allowed the NLC to identify projects to fund without first receiving an application, and to identify and appoint an NPC or NPO to run the project.
This resulted in dodgy, often hijacked, NPCs or NPOs with no experience of construction being put in charge of multimillion-rand projects which were never completed.
