Secrecy at Lotto commission must end now

The National Lotteries Commission’s (NLC) announcement that it will no longer publish a list of the people and organisations which receive grants leaves a disturbing question: what is it trying to hide?

For the past 18 years, the NLC – which claims it is committed to transparency – has published the details of grant recipients and how much they received.

That is the bare minimum it should do, we believe, not only to satisfy the tenets of good corporate governance, but to ensure the wider population – those whose money the NLC doles out as it sees fit – are fully informed.

Under a veil of secrecy, it would be too easy for money to be handed out to friends, family, political connections …

In recent months, there have been a worrying number of stories about just that happening with grants.

Money from the lottery is meant to genuinely uplift deserving individuals and organisations and is, properly run, an excellent way of using private funding (from the sale of tickets) to augment the job government is doing in alleviating social ills.

This secrecy must end now. We have a right to know what is happening at the NLC.

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