National Gambling board suspended

Seemingly...

Not sure what consequences this has for racing

JOHANNESBURG – Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has suspended the entire National Gambling Board pending the outcome of a forensic investigation.

The Trade and Industry Department has confirmed the board was temporarily suspended earlier this month although the reasons are still unclear.

The department has also been unwilling to clarify this, saying it could be held against them in an upcoming court case.

Spokesperson Sidwell Medupe says two administrators will run the board until the matter is resolved.

“The forensic investigation will mainly cover the assets of the National Gambling Board and the minister has also appointed two administrators to oversee the day to day assess of the National Gambling Board. We are able to say how long this will take.”

(Edited by Tamsin Wort)

Here we go again for another long winded process

The dept of T&i did commission the gambling overview, the results of which were positive for gamblers IMO,in that more options were suggested.
None of the recommendations have been implemented and You have to wonder why?
Forensic audits??
Problem, as Dave says,this will inevitably be a long drawn out affair, so any changes just become delayed!

As all Gambling matters are Provincial, and are handled by separate
Provincial Gambling Boards, this should have no bearing on anything.

what a mess it is. :dry:

www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Davies-e...-suspension-20141018

Davies explains Gambling Board's suspension
2014-10-18 08:42

Cape Town - Allegations of maladministration, wasteful spending and corrupt activities prompted Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies to suspend members of the National Gambling Board (NGB) last month.

These are among reasons given by Davies on Friday in a written submission to Parliament's trade and industry portfolio committee, in line with a request by its chairwoman Joan Fubbs for him to do so.

The minister is currently abroad and the submission was made on his behalf by the department's director general, Lionel October.

Davies suspended the NGB last month, pending a forensic investigation into the affairs of the agency, whose members are appointed by the minister.

Two administrators were appointed at the time to oversee the entity's day-to-day affairs.

The board is responsible for overseeing and regulating South Africa's multi-billion-rand gambling industry.

In the submission, Davies said the suspensions were "precautionary", and followed allegations reported by the auditor-general in the NGB's recently tabled 2013/14 annual report.

Bank account

These included alleged contravention of the Public Finance Management Act through "failing to prevent irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and making overdraft on the entity's bank account without the approval of the minister of finance".

Further, the board's accounting authority, "acting either individually or jointly", had allegedly contravened the National Gambling Act by "allowing members whose term of office had expired to continue participating in the board's activities and representing the NGB".

Davies said he had also received a disclosure - made in terms of the Protected Disclosures Act - that contained certain other allegations.

Among these were allegations of "apparent corrupt activities regarding the National Central Electronic Monitoring System" and the "unlawful appointments of staff".

Also, there was alleged "intimidation/bullying/disregard of constitution/witch-hunt", as well as alleged "theft of evidential material" at the NGB.

The Democratic Alliance on Friday welcomed the minister's giving reasons for his suspension of the NGB members.

According to the NGB's annual report, gross gambling revenue for 2013/14 was R21.8bn, more than three-quarters of which came from casinos.
Taxes and levies collected from gambling activities amounted to R2.2bn over this period.

- SAPA

Just another govt dept so "same old , same old!!!!!!!

True Rob it's becoming insane if not mistaken the only government dept that is reasonably well run and efficient is unfortunately SARS is there any reason why?

And we have a mini budget speech this week which terrifies me. They gonna say we need more money. I just dunno how much more the middle class can take to be honest.

The SA Government are spending a fortune just repaying interest on debt but still we make more debt to fund the Grant system. I hope we can hang in there for another 4 or so years till we get some new leadership