Cracks in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s funding model over the past few years unravelled when an ongoing investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found that the bursary scheme funded more than 40 000 undeserving students to the tune of R5 billion.
This, according to the SIU happened between 2018 and 2021 and the students were enrolled in over 70 institutions.
Some institutions have so far made efforts to repay NSFAS. However, SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago pointed out that this is a separate matter, as these were funds that were intended for funding students who either deregistered or changed institutions.
Although these funds were meant to be returned within a year through reconciliation, the funds remained in the possession of the institutions throughout the past 5 years between 2016 and 2021 according to Kganyago.
At the end of each year, NSFAS was supposed to do a reconciliation and say, we have given you so many millions for this many students let’s see how many of them have registered and subtract the amount of those that have registered and studied, then return the remainder and fund the next group.
For its part, NSFAS has recently appointed a service provider called "close-out reporting” to assist them in performing the reconciliation process.
Kganyago further stated that they expect to recover over R1 billion from 5 implicated institutions and recoup any accumulated interest and return it to NSFAS.
The SIU has also called on all implicated institutions to voluntarily return these unallocated funds to fast-track the investigative process.
The SIU also intends to report any evidence of criminal activity to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for further action in accordance with the Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals Act 74 of 1996.
More higher education institutions are expected to continue paying back unallocated funds that are owed to NSFAS as the SIU investigation continues.
The SIU plans to provide the President with an interim report on its findings following a year of investigation.
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