NSFAS audit the worst ever

11 February 2021

Parliament’s portfolio committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology has described the National Students Financial Aid Scheme, audit outcomes under administration as the “worst ever”.

According to the findings at present with the auditor-general, NSFAS has incurred R5 billion in irregular expenditure for the 2019/2020 period, while the 2018/2019 figure stands at R3.2bn.

These two periods were under former NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen, whose term ended in December.

The public entity’s annual report outcomes were tabled yesterday by the auditor-general’s Luthando Mehlomakulu, who reported that for the past three financial periods NSFAS had qualified audit opinions and flagged that there was no paper trail for some of the issues.

Mehlomakulu said there was no evidence the repayments made to universities had been properly accounted for and evidence could not be obtained that interest received from student loans had also been accounted for.

He said there was no evidence on the amounts owed by universities because of a lack of reconciliation between NSFAS and some universities.

The audit revealed that NSFAS performance reports lacks credibility and that only 36% of achievements that have been reported could be relied on.

Adapted from original source: IOL

LT