Rob Davies, the Trade and Industry Minister of South Africa, announced that the National Gambling Board should be reviewed after the thorough investigation, which took place last year, found embarrassing irregularities related to the expenditure of a considerable sum of money.
Minister Davies commented on the matter last Friday and said that there is a lot of work to be done as the way the National Gambling Board functioned was far too unsatisfactory.
The deputy spokesman of the Democratic Alliance for trade and industry, Dean Macpherson, encouraged Minister Davies to announce the names of those members of the National Gambling Board who should be held responsible for the current issues.
Macpherson also added that he was going to submit a letter to Minister Davies and require him to announce the names of the people who have contribution to those problems. He said that South African authorities cannot take adequate actions. Currently, their hands are tied but once the full report is released, they will be able to hold them to account.
Back in 2014, the results from the above-mentioned investigation showed that the members of the National Gambling Board leased an office, which was too spacious and therefore, unnecessary expenses totaling R50 million were made. In addition, as much as R1 billion has been spent on central electronic monitoring system.
Apart from the aforementioned violations, other, related to the arrangement of former Board members as well as the unwarranted meetings has been revealed.
However, up to now, there has not been released official information, proving or denying these violations but the Minister said that these issues have been successfully dealt with.
Yet, the result from the investigation made Minister Davies suspend the National Gambling Board in September.
The Minister said that both preliminary and full report, concerning the investigation are to be released at a later stage.
After the investigation, key political figures insisted on repositioning the gambling board and “demoting” it to a regulator. Actually, the Board members are not eligible for issuing licenses, while the provincial gambling boards are allowed to do so.
Mr. Macpherson required the Minister to recover the whole sum, which has been literary wasted by the Board members. In addition, he demanded certain charges against those who dared to violate the rules to be applied.
According to the spokesman, making sure that this would never happen again was barely enough and more stagnant measures have to be taken.
