Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign a proclamation that will instruct the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe the National Skills Fund (NSF).
The request comes after the NSF’s presentation to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday showed lapses in its administration and signs of grave financial and organisational mismanagement.
The committee’s chairperson, Tebogo Letsie, believes the investigation should focus on finding out if due processes have been followed in funding projects and probe whether entities have indeed completed work they have been sponsored for.
“The NSF was created to develop the skills development shortages we have as a country, to re-skill and upskill our people. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and then we have people who have so many resources to respond to this problem and they are not doing it. So, we are appealing to them to say, if they are not fit enough to help us as a country, we are asking them to leave the entity,” he said.
These are the same sentiments shared by the DA’s deputy spokesperson on higher education Désirée van der Walt, who earlier this week reiterated that Ramaphosa could no longer turn a blind eye to the maladministration at the NSF.
“The president must act now and issue a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate the National Skills Fund. Only through the SIU’s statutory powers can we get to the bottom of the NSF’s financial mismanagement and ensure accountability. The future of skills development and the credibility of public institutions depend on it,” she said.
The committee slams the entity for its poor audit outcomes, which were part of the Scopa presentation.
The report showed the organisation’s dismal financial performance as recorded in the Auditor-General’s 2022/23 report. The NSF obtained a qualified audit opinion for the third consecutive year. The AG’s concerns regarding the entity’s performance range from their financial management, poor internal control measures, and defective organisational governance to the level of integrity of the organisation overall.
The NSF report states that the entity has formulated a detailed audit action plan (AAP) to address the root causes for each audit finding and keep track of the corrective actions and the Finance Unit.
Further, the NSF’s internal audit unit will be evaluating the adequacy of management’s agreed action plans on the reported AG findings. “Implementation of the AAP will result in improved organisational effectiveness, efficiency, and performance, ultimately leading to an improved audit outcome,” according to the report.
The committee raises alarm- bells about critical posts in the organisation, which have remained vacant since the 2021/22 financial year and has recommended that senior NSF officials who have performed poorly be charged and face disciplinary proceedings.
Letsie goes as far as questioning whether the number of unfilled vacancies reported by the NSF is accurate. Letsie claims to have enquired about this matter in September and was told that there are 28 vacant posts only for the NSF to report that there are 42 to Scopa. The AG’s report meanwhile records 51 vacancies at the entity.
“We believe they are lying to us, the NSF, in terms of the number of vacancies there. We have three different numbers, and we said to them that we will institute section 17 B that penalises people who lie in parliament. The matter has been recurring for too long, the vacancies are left unfilled for too long. Human resources says it is as a result of people resigning and deaths.”
A letter addressed to Minister of Higher Education Dr Nobuhle Pamela Nkabane Letsie, dated October 16, 2024, on behalf of the committee, requests there be regular engagements with the NSF so that it can develop a turn-around strategy and an organisational structure that is fit for purpose.
The committee wants the NSF to answer to its inability to recoup funds that have been misappropriated by skills development providers and to ensure that the ministerial task team recommendations are swiftly implemented.
“The committee would like to reiterate its concern in respect of the overall state of affairs of the NSF, in particular, the performance recorded by the entity during the year under review of 18% against its targets and underspending of 42% of the budget,” the letter reads.
