The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has signed more than 400 acknowledgements of debt with students who were not qualified to receive NSFAS funding.

All the parents and students involved have been cooperating and have agreed to pay the debt over some time. “The SIU is urging unqualified NSFAS beneficiaries who have not been in contact with the unit to come forward and arrange for repayment,” said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

The SIU has made progress in recovering unallocated funds at the University of Fort Hare, which is the latest university to pay back unallocated funds of R277,666,450. Bringing the overall total of recoveries to R1,165,887,062 to date.

Ten institutions have already paid back some of the funds –  West Coast College, Northlink College, Walter Sisulu University, Nkangala TVET, University of Mpumalanga, University of Zululand, University of Fort Hare, University of Pretoria, Majuba TVET College and University of Johannesburg.

‘Control weaknesses have led to overpayments and underpayments’

After investigations, the SIU revealed NSFAS has failed to design and implement measures to ensure that there is an 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 from 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,” said Kganyago

OFM News/Casey-Lee Anthony dg