Africa-Press-South-Africa<\/p>\n
Cape Town \u2013 Parliament\u2019s portfolio committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology has described the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) audit outcomes under administration as the \u201cworst ever\u201d.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
These two periods were under former NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen, whose term ended in December.<\/p>\n
The public entity\u2019s annual report outcomes were tabled yesterday by the auditor-general\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegarding credible financial reporting, financial statements were received on time as required. However, the quality of the statements after auditing was not adequate for both 2019\/2020 and 2018\/2019.<\/p>\n
\u2019\u2019We identified material misstatements and these misstatements could not be corrected, resulting in a qualification,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He said there was no evidence on the amounts owed by universities because of a lack of reconciliation between NSFAS and some universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were also credibility issues in NSFAS performance reports. We identified that we can rely on only 36% of achievements that have been reported,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Higher education portfolio committee chairperson Philly Mapulane said the public entity was in bad shape because of the findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past three financial years under the administrator have been the worst ever, judging by the findings of the auditor-general.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of material findings have been highlighted, things that were meant to be achieved through the administrator were not \u2013 in fact they all got worse.<\/p>\n
\u2019\u2019Issues that triggered NSFAS to be under administration still exist. It is good that we now have a board and have resumed its responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now hoping for a turnaround by the new leadership. This committee has had running battles with the previous administrator where all these things were pointed out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were informed that the audit outcomes would be bad and that there is no system of managing performance. Now that has been confirmed by the AG,\u201d said Mapulane.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press-South-Africa Cape Town \u2013 Parliament\u2019s portfolio committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology has described the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) audit outcomes under administration as the \u201cworst ever\u201d. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[315,385],"class_list":["post-4290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-national-students"],"yoast_head":"\n