It has been found that almost half a million student records were irregular. Carte Blanche reported that only 40% of the 440 000 irregular records were checked and that NSFAS didn't even know if the students were real. The report said that there were 'ghost students' which are students that don't exist but are being paid.
This seems to be an insult to existing students who have not received their NSFAS allowances for months and are in desperate need of it.
NSFAS responded to the ghost student conundrum by saying that the reason behind it is that NSFAS does not have checks in place for when a student drops out.
"NSFAS will only pick them up in the subsequent year," said NSFAS Spokesperson, Kagisho Mamabolo.
He went on to say that they won't be able to recover the allowances paid to these students but can recover tuition fees.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is no stranger to corruption and embezzlement scandals. For years, several investigations have taken place.
A report done by the Auditor-General revealed that NSFAS had a lack of internal controls and has been called 'dysfunctional'.
R7 billion has been irregularly spent at NSFAS due to very little checks and balances being in place. Irregular expenditure is when bookkeeping is not in order and that the process of authorisation for funds being used had a few holes in it.
In 2018, NSFAS was placed under administration and was headed by then Administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen, whose term ended in 2020.
NSFAS Spokesperson, Kagisho Mamabolo, said:
One of the greatest things that happened under the NSFAS administration was to unravel co-ordinated fraud and some elements of syndicates that involved NSFAS officials.
Mamabolo went on to say that NSFAS has opened a fraud line.
The NSFAS board has also lodged various complaints to the Special Investigative Unit (SIU).
The Board and the CEO are working very hard to firstly support the institutions to ensure they help us to comply. Secondly is to make sure the IT system is fit for purpose.
To avoid corruption, the NSFAS system now uses students ID numbers to check if they actually exist and to also verify the household financial status.
