SIU investigation shows students got R5bn NSFAS funds fraudulently
The South African Union of Students, however feels "it would be a miscarriage to criminalise" about 40 000 students in 76 institutions of higher education.
More than R5-billion of the bursary funder, National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has gone to students who did not qualify, a preliminary SIU investigation has shown.
The special investigating unit (SIU) investigation alleged that the students had allegedly misrepresented their household income status in order to accessing funding that they would ordinarily be ineligible for thus defrauding the state.
The SIU was revealed this to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on April 18.
According to the investigation, 40 044 students in 76 institutions of higher education across all nine provinces were incorrectly funded from 2018 to 2021 to the tune of R5 106 561 573.
The highest number of institutions and students involved is from Gauteng. Here are the findings:
– 15 institutions, involving 17 788 students in Gauteng claimed R1 992 784 618
– 13 institutions, involving 4 409 students in KwaZulu-Natal claimed R607 041 637
– 12 institutions, involving 3 842 students in Eastern Cape claimed R597 792 612
– 10 institutions, involving 5 481 students in Free State claimed R787 537 829
– nine institutions, involving 2 291 students in Limpopo claimed R282 357 730
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said according to the investigation, the recipients of funding were students whose household income was above R350 000.
“They therefore would not qualify for NSFAS funding based on the funding rules. These students did not submit their parent’s details upon application and therefore the means test was not properly conducted.”
Kganyogo said the SIU’s investigation detailed 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.
“This control weakness led to overpayments and underpayments of funds to the different institutions for the period 2017 to date. To remedy this, NSFAS recently appointed a service provider to assist it perform this reconciliation in a process called close-out reporting.
“The SIU has also identified different scenarios in which students were funded because of over payments, underpayments, unfunded students, double dipping and dropouts, and the involvement of syndicates in student accommodation.
“All these implications are because the different governance levels and senior management staff did not fully discharge their duties in terms of the all the different applicable legislation.”
He said the SIU was empowered to institute civil action in the high court or a special tribunal to correct any wrongdoing – acts of corruption, fraud or maladministration – uncovered by the investigation.
South African union of students (SAUS) national spokesperson Asive Dlanjwa said the union was concerned that more than R5-billion was spent outside the parameters of the law.
“We are obviously concerned about the actions of the alleged students however, we welcome and acknowledge that there must be consequences for these students.”
Dlanjwa said however SAUS was opposed to the SIU possibly criminalising the students.
“In the interest of justice, it would be a miscarriage thereof to criminalise them.
“The reality is that the funds were not sought for squander but to provide these students their constitutional right to education. They committed an unlawful error which was meant to afford them an education that would afford them an honest living which would redeem them from the perilous clutches of poverty.”
Dlanjwa said the SIU should rather look at recouping the money through favourable repayment plans for the students.
He said rather the heads had to roll on senior managers and officials at institutions.
“To the extent to which the SIU has found evidence of wrongdoing on the part of these officials, we are making an acute call that, heads must in fact roll, and the full might of the law must be brought down on their corruption incubating heads.”
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