The special investigating unit (SIU) has welcomed the payment of R311-million made by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
According to the SIU, the money is part of unallocated funds from 2016 to 2021 for students who qualified for funding but either changed institutions or deregistered.
The funds stay in the possession of the institution for a year.
“The payment made by UJ brings the total amount received from institutions of higher learning to approximately R349.3-million since the inception of the NSFAS investigation in September 2022,” said the investigating unit.
Following the payment by UJ, the SIU encouraged all institutions of higher learning to come forward and pay back unallocated funds that are due to NSFAS.
The unallocated funds were supposed to have been collected by NSFAS at the end of each year through reconciliation.
“However, the SIU’s investigation revealed that NSFAS failed to design and implement controls that would ensure that there is an annual reconciliation between the funds disbursed to the institutions and the funded list of registered students,” said the SIU.
To remedy this, NSFAS has recently appointed a service provider to assist them perform this reconciliation in a process called “close-out reporting”.
In April, the SIU revealed that it had managed to recoup a further R5.4-million from two institutions as its investigation into the NSFAS corruption and maladministration scandal continues.
That brought the total of the amount recouped so far to R38.3-million following the recovery of R33-million from Northlink TVET College in Western Cape.
The unit was giving an update to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts on its investigation into allegations of corruption and maladministration in the affairs of NSFAS, and its effort to recover financial losses suffered by the state through corruption and negligence.
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