Lack of transparency bedevils commission

With the focus on State Capture, the National Lotteries Commission should be more sensitive to the desire for accountability and transparency. In a Daily Maverick analysis, Shelagh Gastrow notes that there have been numerous reports on the National Lottery over ‘dodgy grants’. ‘There is no doubt that something odd is going on, but why are we surprised? This has been a problem for years and nobody ever takes responsibility, from the level of the Minister of Trade and Industry down to the very bowels of the lottery system. There is always an investigation that rarely provides the public with any outcome or conclusion.’ She notes that the National Lotteries Commission still refuses to publish its list of grants in case some of the organisations are hounded for money. ‘What a pathetic reason for a lack of transparency in a country with a massive problem of corruption. The history of the lotteries includes a litany of dubious grants and hopeless administration. The lines of accountability are blurred, but it seems as though the decision-making itself might not fall within the control of the National Lotteries Commission, which appears from the outside to only undertake administrative support for the distribution agencies and is not actually involved in the decision-making.’