Lotteries Commission set to distribute R150m in relief funds to NPOs

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has confirmed that the distribution of R150 million in Covid-19 relief for qualifying non-profit organisation (NPOs) was still underway, it confirmed to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade Industry and Competition on Wednesday.

This comes in light of the NLC’s R50 million donation to the Solidarity Fund while R10 million for relief hampers was distributed to over 13,000 households.

The NLC also briefed the committee on organisational matters where its board revealed that before the pandemic, around 71% of lottery ticket sales were from retailer sales.

“Since the NLC does not receive any funding from the fiscus, with the main source of income being revenue from the National Lottery, prohibition of sales during lockdown resulted in reliance on low sales from digital platforms.

“A revision of the projection of contributions to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund for the year from R1.64 billion to R1.19 billion.

“The NLC’s operational budget has also been revised in line with these developments.”

On the processing of grants, the NLC said it introduced measures to mitigate against delays experienced.

“The NLC responded to the challenges that the pandemic presented by firstly adjusting the funding model to allow for the submission of applications for relief funds electronically, and enhancing the assessment template.”

The NLC added that it achieved the following despite a number of office closures due to employees testing positive for Covid-19:

• Number of days for return of the grant agreement reduced from 30 days to seven days
• The Grant Agreements concluded electronically
• Legislatively, the NLC has 150 days to adjudicate an application. However, the turnaround time for the Covid-19 relief applications is an average of 14 days
• Average turnaround time for payment of relief funds is 11 days, as opposed to the legislated 60 days in which to effect payment once a fully compliant grant agreement has been received.

The commission further said it had initiated a process where applicants/beneficiaries declare any possible conflict when submitting their applications as a measure.

“The NLC will further request beneficiaries to ensure full disclosure by their service providers and contractors regarding any relations they may have to the NLC.”

The NLC continued to say that it was implementing a revamped system for infrastructure projects with a dual relation between the recipient of the funds and the engineers.

“Through this system control of funds rest with the engineers until full completion and handover of the project, after which funds allocated for operational cost will be released to the beneficiary organisation.”

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