BILLIONS of rands have been sitting idle in the National Lottery Board’s coffers while the country’s charities struggle to stay afloat, reports The Times.

It was revealed in Parliament yesterday that despite having at least R3,3-billion available to assist organisations this year alone, a measly R948-million had been paid out to charities. This amounts to 72 percent of the money available lying in limbo.

This startling figure came to light a day after the Sunday Times revealed the dire situation children’s charities are facing as the recession starts to bite.

Figures for last year and 2007 reflect just as poorly on the Lotto board.

Last year the board had R2,9-billion available, but only R634-million was paid out.

The year before R2,1-billion was available , but only 37 percent, or R792-million, found its way to the needy.

The Democratic Alliance’s Kobus Marais, who posed questions to the Department of Trade and Industry on the poor payouts, is now questioning the bonuses paid to the board’s members.

The six board members — Joe Foster, advocate George Negota, Henry Makgothi, Nora Fakude-Nkuna, Shelley Thomas and Norman Axten — took home a combined R7,5-million for their troubles.

“It is the responsibility of the board to ensure that the lottery distributes monies available to it. It is quite clearly failing to do this and those responsible for this failing, including the board members, now need to account for this failure and justify their salaries,” said Marais.

“I will also be asking what action will be taken against those board members or administrators who fail to meet those criteria,” he said.

The Sunday Times reported that charitable organisations, representing 30% of social services, now have R3-billion less to spend because of the recession — a shortfall that the lottery funds could have helped to fill.

The bleak economic outlook has caused the world-renowned Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund to consider cutting services and stipends for thousands of caregivers.

Jeanette Birrell, director of the Tshwane Place of Safety, was quoted as saying that without a new source of funding they will “end up having to place these kids on the [government’s] doorstep and say, ‘Sorry, now you will have to find a place for them’.”

The lottery board’s Gideon Sam admitted that the distribution process “is taking too long”.

Sam, who heads the board’s distribution agency responsible for donating money to sports programmes, sai d: “It takes a year [for money to be allocated to charities]. We need to make sure that payments are executed quicker.

“The minister [of trade and industry] has agreed that we need to have a better payout process.

“There are various agreements that need to be signed, but sometimes when money is paid out, beneficiaries find that the money is too little because [their costs] have gone up.

“Beneficiaries, on the other hand, also need to give the lottery board feedback sooner so that they can get second- round payments.” – The Times