More than R100-million to be returned by students

More than R100m will be recovered from 421 students who received National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding, but didn’t qualify.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) confirmed that Acknowledgement of Debt (AoD) agreements had been signed by the students, with an amount of R112 174 825.97 to be repaid over time.

SIU Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said they are pleased with the cooperative attitude of the parents and unqualified NSFAS beneficiaries.

“We urge unqualified NSFAS beneficiaries who have not been in contact with the unit to come forward and arrange for repayment.

“We have made progress in recovering unallocated funds, with the University of Fort Hare being the latest university to pay back unallocated funds,” he said.

Kganyago says the total recoveries of R1 165 887 062 to date come from:

– The University of Zululand: R58 088 144.65
– Amajuba TVET College: R25 902 309.31
– The West Coast College: R5 057 679.00
– Northlink College: R33 369 404.97
– Walter Sisulu University: R19 900 174.00
– Nkangala TVET: R342 672.50
– The University of Mpumalanga: R33 668 138.19
– The University of Fort Hare: R277 666 450
– The University of Pretoria: R400 000 000
– The University of Johannesburg: R311 892 088.94

Weaknesses in the system

Kganyago said their investigation revealed that NSFAS failed to design and implement controls to ensure annual reconciliation between the funds disbursed to the institutions, and the allocation of those funds to the students.

“These control weaknesses have led to overpayments and underpayments of funds to the different institutions over the period 2017 to date.

NSFAS has appointed a service provider to assist them in performing this reconciliation via a ‘close-out reporting’ process.

The reconciliation process is still ongoing.”

He said the SIU is authorised to recover any financial losses suffered by the State through corruption and negligence, with civil action and criminal proceedings pursued where required.

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