Where there is government, there is corruption. In South Africa, there is a lot of corruption. I have recently been trying to uncover an embezzlement scandal at my school.
LOTTO is the South African National Lottery and as with the lotteries in the U.S., the funds are supposed to be used to fund various projects and non-profits that serve to improve the lives of South Africans. The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTB) is the group responsible for distributing the LOTTO money to various areas (sports, education, arts and culture, health, etc.). I have a friend who is a South African national whose organization is getting funding from the LOTTO through the Department of Social Services. The CEO of the group is embezzling money to fund his girlfriends, build a new house, and using the company truck as his own personal car.
This entry is not about him but about the corruption that I have been dealing with in the sports section with a woman who, for the sake of anonymity I will call Thandi. Thandi "helps" schools with the LOTTO application and then executes the project and files all of the follow-up paperwork.
The first time I met her (around October 2008), I introduced myself as a Peace Corps volunteer from the U.S. who was working with that primary school for the next two years to help with campus improvements and staff development. I had been told that we had been awarded LOTTO funds for the project and I expressed interest in controlling the funds since I was heading up the sports field project at the school. She backed away wearily and I definitely got a vibe that my presence was not welcome and she wasn't happy with me asking.
In around April of this year, they started construction of the new courts. Shortly after starting, the contractor pulled me aside and told me that he "would be surprised if your school got even half of what Thandi promised them because she spends the money as her own". Given her reaction to me, I was not the least bit surprised to hear of this. To confirm this, I asked the principal where the money had been deposited. Sure enough, it was was deposited into Thandi's PERSONAL checking account.
When filling out the application for funds, Thandi lists herself as the project manager and lists her personal checking account as the location for the money to be deposited. Once the money has been awarded to the school, she-and only she-has access to the money and account. Since she is listed as the project manager on the application, she has no legal responsibility to show any financial transactions or even the LOTTO contract-describing how the funds are to be allocated and reporting requirements-to the school (even though there is supposed to be copies of the contract at the school).
I phoned her to ask for a copy of the LOTTO contract so I could see what all of the financial responsibilities of the recipient are. She said, "It was very unprofessional of you to call me directly, if you wanted to get a copy of the contract then you should have had the Sports Committee call and request it." She continued, "If you wanted to do a sports project at the school you should have brought your own money from America!". So I had the chairman of the committee call her and she denied his request saying, "the only reason that you're asking for it is because David wants it so I'm not going to give it to you".
By the middle of August the contractor had most of the court built with the court paved and the surrounding fence installed and painted but then the work suddenly halted. This was inconvenient timing because at the end of September I was planning on having a volleyball tournament as a way to showcase the new courts. I called the contractor in October to see when they were planning on finishing the work and he said that he was waiting to be paid by Thandi. He has been scammed by her in the past and would not finished until the final payment was made. I asked the principal about it and she said she was waiting on Thandi to get the 2nd round of money (the LOTTO pays in two rounds to ensure the first round of funding was used properly).
Two weeks ago, the Head of Department of the Foundation phase at my school pulled me aside and she informed me that the money had been deposited into Thandi's account. The Sports Committee had demanded that Thandi present her financial records to show that the money is correctly being spent. She must be a smooth talker because somehow she got them to agree to a completion date of the end of December without revealing any financial records. I told her that I didn't think that was sufficient and it is probably an empty promise like all of the other empty promises she has made; she agreed with this assessment. Since she was not authorized to tell me she requested I not tell the principal.
I tried to pry the information out of the principal by asking roundabout questions like: "so, when do you think the courts will be finished?"; "do you know what's holding things up?". I got her to admit that the new money had been deposited but nothing else.
On Saturday we held a meeting with the SGB (the South African equivalent of the PTA in U.S. schools) because I had a lot of topics to discuss: the new kitchen (details to come), a classroom management workshop, a new method of collecting school funds, increasing parental involvement, approval to hold a netball tournament at the school, and leasing the new courts as a way to make money to support the school's sports activities. I requested 30 minutes to talk about these issues since there seems to be a double standard of time and they will wait for hours to meet with you but then only want to meet for a very short time once they meet you and I didn't think they would agree to more initially. They approved the new kitchen, classroom management workshop, and are contemplating the other ones.
The 30 minutes had expired and I still hadn't addressed the leasing of the sports fields. The principal informed me of this but I requested an additional 10 minutes assertively saying that the next piece was very important (to be fair, she was an hour late to the meeting so she should be willing to give me an extra ten minutes) I used the leasing of the courts as a way to segue into inquiring about the LOTTO funding.
Since I had gained the privileged information that the money was deposited into the account I asked "if the money is in the account, and the contractor is waiting to get paid before completing the work, why isn't he getting paid and the courts being completed?". The principal tried to strong-arm me and said "I don't believe you have the knowledge to be talking about such an issue. You've got approval for the kitchen, what more do you want?". Silence. I replied, "I want the school to get all of the things that it deserves and want to make sure that money is going towards the project. It seems to me that there must be something going on especially if Thandi is not willing to release the records, I suggest that if she doesn't then you get a court order forcing her to produce them for you". The principal said, "That's enough, this is a new SGB and you are confusing them since they don't know about the project, goodbye".
I left the meeting and felt that despite my best efforts I had failed at stopping what was wrong even though proving it and ending the corruption seemed so simple to correct. Times like these are what gives me doubt that I am ever going to accomplish anything here. I had decided that I should focus on the new kitchen and let whatever happens with the LOTTO money happen and it was out of my control.
I started running again this morning since my educator commented on Friday that my legs were getting flabby and returned home to see that I had two missed calls from the contractor. I called him back and was pleasantly surprised with the news he had for me. Miraculously, Thandi deposited the required balance into the contractor's account and he is ready to complete the work!
Given the immediacy of the deposit of the money after the confrontation regarding its possible misuse, it makes me wonder how much of this she knew already but was unwilling to admit for whatever reason. However, my job isn't to defame my principal but to improve the school; since she is mostly supporting me in my efforts then I don't really care to speculate further. By getting the money released, the work completed, and a few educators willing to stand against the corruption (to some extent) then I have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish with this part of the project and can move on.
