The Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has commended the recovery of R112 million in irregular payments from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to undeserving recipients by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
This comes just days after departmental leaders committed themselves to ridding the department of corruption following the Werkmans Attorneys report which also called for four direct payment service providers to be removed.
Last week, the SIU was given the green light to recover more than R112 million from unqualified NSFAS students.
SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, said the unit has signed Acknowledgement of Debt (AoD) agreements with 421 students from tertiary institutions across the country who did not qualify for NSFAS funding, to the tune of R112 174 825.
“Two days after the ministerial leadership team in the DHET (Department of Higher Education and Training) made a firm commitment to address the systemic governance issues at NSFAS, we commend the SIU for taking active steps to claw back irregular payments and send a clear message that abuse of the student funding system will not be tolerated,” Gondwe said.
More than 421 students from across five universities and four Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, who did not qualify to be funded by NSFAS, had signed acknowledgement of debt agreements to pay back the money that was irregularly paid to them, she said.
The SIU has indicated that these irregular payments have been made possible by weak controls within NSFAS.
The SIU said this has in turn resulted in overpayments and underpayments from 2017 to date.
On Friday, Gondwe said the R112 million paid out to undeserving recipients has robbed 1 700 deserving students who could have been funded for at least one academic year.
“Many victims may have dropped out or deferred their studies because they could not afford to pay the requisite academic fees. Every rand that is spent on an undeserving beneficiary robs a deserving one.”
Gondwe said her department will ramp up its efforts to resolve the issue of irregular payments while also ensuring that the institution is taken out of administration and ensure that only deserving students are provided with the financial support they need.
Kganyago indicated that some parents and students were co-operating with the SIU investigation and were committed to repaying the money owed to NSFAS over time.
“The SIU is urging unqualified NSFAS beneficiaries who have not been in contact with the unit to come forward and arrange for repayment.
“In addition to the AoDs, the SIU has made progress in recovering unallocated funds, with the University of Fort Hare being the latest university to pay back unallocated funds of R277 666 450. This brings the total of recoveries to R1 165 887 062,” he said.
The Star