Vindicated — lottery board was right to return R300m to Treasury, says Parliament’s legal adviser

Parliament’s chief legal adviser has confirmed that the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) had to surrender a R300-million reserve to National Treasury in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

“Had the board not complied with the injunction from National Treasury, it would have been guilty of financial misconduct which is a ground for dismissal or suspension of board members,” advocate Zuraya Adhikarie said in an opinion dated 10 October and given to the trade, industry and competition portfolio committee.

The payment to Treasury was raised by MPs during a fiery meeting in September when NLC board chairperson Barney Pityana, NLC commissioner Jodi Scholtz and other senior executives appeared before the committee.

The NLC had reserves of R1.4-billion at the time of the payment but was only ordered to pay R300-million to Treasury, Pityana told Parliament.

Questions were raised about the legality of the surrender at a time, it was alleged, that the NLC was turning down requests for funding from needy organisations.

The debate ended with committee chairperson Mzwandile Masina requesting an opinion from Adhikarie on whether it was legally permissible for the board to surrender the R300-million from its reserves, a contingency in the event of lottery operations being affected by litigation cash flow problems.

Adhikarie said that while the Lotteries Act prescribes that any unexpended money could be carried forward as a credit in the next financial year, Treasury had invoked the PFMA which states that a public entity which must submit a budget may not accumulate surpluses without prior written approval from Treasury.

“It was the tension between these two Acts which prompted the chairperson [of the portfolio committee] to seek a legal opinion. This included whether the PFMA trumps the Lotteries Act, the question of whether the NLC is a public entity because it does not receive funding from the national revenue fund, and if there is any basis for the R300-million to be returned to the NLC,” Adhikarie said.

She said section 3(3) of the PFMA provides that in the event of any inconsistency between the PFMA and other legislation, the PFMA prevails.

On the question of whether the NLC was a public entity, as defined in the Act, she said: “The fact that it does not receive funding from the national revenue fund is neither here nor there.

“There can be no doubt that the NLC meets all the jurisdictional requirements of a national public entity, in that it is governed by a board which is established in terms of national legislation, it is fully or substantially funded from money imposed in terms of national legislation and it is accountable to Parliament.”

Adhikarie said accounting authorities of public entities listed in the PFMA must submit formal requests to Treasury to retain surpluses.

Read Parliament’s chief legal adviser’s report.

In a further report to the committee, Treasury director-general, Dr Duncan Pieterse, said that during the 2021/22 financial year the NLC had not been able to submit its application to retain the surplus for the 2020/21 financial year because of outstanding audit issues.

While the NLC had advised Treasury of the outstanding audit issues, when the audit was finalised in February 2020 it had not submitted an application to retain its surplus within the stipulated 30 days.

The R300-million was calculated based on Treasury’s formula, he said.

The current lottery board was appointed in 2022 and Scholtz was appointed in 2023, with a mandate to clean up a corrupt and dysfunctional institution.

GroundUp has reported on a coordinated campaign, within Parliament and outside of it, pushing for the dismissal of Scholtz and the dissolution of the NLC board led by Pityana. DM

First published by GroundUp.