The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will focus its efforts on data reconciliation for the 2024 academic year. This will be done to ensure the scheme complies with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
The PFMA legislation governs financial management in both national and provincial governments, including public departments and entities. Its primary goal is to ensure the efficient, effective, and transparent use of public funds.
In 2021, NSFAS launched the Close-Out project following years of financial mismanagement and data issues. The project aimed to resolve individual student funding issues and align data between NSFAS and institutions.
It further sought to quantify and disburse outstanding amounts to institutions, students, and accommodation partners while also recovering funds owed to NSFAS. This project will result in billions of rands changing hands.
NSFAS CEO Waseem Carrim said NSFAS’ focus on the 2024 academic year will form part of its strategy to regularise its financial statement and auditing processes. They revealed the government bursary scheme plans to implement monthly and annual reconciliations with financial penalties for Universities and TVET Colleges that fail to submit data.
They believe the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is better equipped to handle the Close-out project for the period between April 2021 and 31 March 2023. The unit has already recovered billions of rands and secured acknowledgment of debt agreements with students who unduly benefited from NSFAS funding.
The period 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2023 [should be] consolidated and treated as an investigative process managed by the SIU given that they possess the skills and capabilities to execute this task.
NSFAS 2024 Close-Out Project
NSFAS confirmed that institutions were issued with letters requesting the submission of full cost of study (FCoS) data. This refers to the total claim for tuition and NSFAS-allowable allowances for NSFAS-funded students, after institutional adjustments split by sBux/Direct payments and FNB.
While all universities submitted FCoS data to NSFAS, just 60% of TVET Colleges or 20 colleges submitted their data.
This process was not without its challenges as NSFAS struggled to obtain accurate and complete full cost of study data from institutions that mirror student fee accounts. The scheme also bemoaned the lack of capacity by institutions to perform data formatting and clean up.
There were also inconsistencies in the way institutions are recording allowances on student accounts and non-allocation of NSFAS funds to student accounts.
NSFAS also faced internal challenges as they grappled with changes in the NSFAS Close-out project team, decisions on historical debt and capacity issues with their financial team. The scheme also faced leadership changes and issues due to reconciliation not done on an annual basis.
Response To Challenges
NSFAS conducted roadshows, engaging 95% of higher education institutions to resolve data-related issues. This forms part of its efforts to address the funding discrepancies between NSFAS and institutions.
The financial aid scheme also partnered with system providers COLTECH and ADAPT IT, along with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), to extract historical billing data spanning from 2017 to 2024.
NSFAS began recovering unfunded amounts from students through collaboration with the SIU.
Two new key performance indicators were added to the Annual Performance Plan, and several critical financial oversight positions have been filled to strengthen internal capacity. This is aimed at enhancing accountability.
