NATIONAL LOTTERIES BOARD, CAPE MINSTRELS, PUBLIC PROTECTOR, PROBE

The National Lotteries Board (NLB) welcome calls by the public and other interested parties, as reported in the media, requesting the Office of the Public Protector to probe the manner in which the funds disbursed by the NLB were spent by the Cape Minstrel Association, says NLB Chief Executive Charlotte Mampane.

"The NLB has been monitoring, and where appropriate responded to, reports by the media on questions surrounding the expenditure of funds that the NLB allocated to the Cape Minstrels Association," says Mampane.

"The NLB in the normal course of its business and conditional to all grants, periodically reviews progress on projects it has funded, the Cape Minstrels Association is no exception and it will be subject to those reviews in due course," says Mampane.

"However, the NLB is not opposed to action being taken by other duly authorized institutions with the responsibility to look after the public's interests, to undertake such an investigation, albeit parallel to our own internal process of holding beneficiaries accountable," says Mampane.

Mampane says it is in that spirit that we will continue to monitor developments around the issue and if warranted, fast track our own monitoring process so that decisive action can be taken.

"While the NLB does not wish to pronounce judgment before the facts become apparent, it is the policy of the organisation to suspend funding to organisations that have been found to have breached their contractual obligations as set out in the terms of the grant received," concludes Mampane.

Statement issued by Ms. Odaho Sengani: Senior Communication Officer, National Lotteries Board, February 19 2015

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