The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has returned money to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) that were unallocated to students from 2016 to 2021.
The university returned a staggering figure of R311 million to the bursary scheme, which are funds that were meant for students who qualified for funding, but either changed institutions or deregistered. The funds then stay in the possession of the institution for a year.
This latest revelation comes as the bursary scheme recently came under fire for the discovery of wrongfully allocated funds to students who did not meet the scheme's eligibility requirements.
The situation was brought to light by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), who revealed that nearly R5 billion was inappropriately distributed to around 40 000 students.
This recent 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 last year by the SIU.
In a statement released on 2 May 2023, the SIU said:
The unallocated funds were supposed to have been collected by NSFAS at the end of each year from institutions of higher learning 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.
To remedy this, NSFAS has recently appointed a service provider to assist them perform this reconciliation in a process called 'close out reporting'.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been conducting an ongoing investigation into NSFAS and institutions of higher learning since September 2022 after allegations of corruption and maladministration surfaced.
The investigation came after the East London Magistrates’ Court, in May 2022, found Sibongile Mani guilty of stealing R818,000 of the R14 million that was accidentally credited to her in 2017, while she was a student at Walter Sisulu University (WSU).
The allegations included that NSFAS bursaries were first allocated to relatives of NSFAS employees, and the allocation of large amounts of money into students’ bank accounts raised concerns of corruption and maladministration within the organisation.
The SIU then decided to submit a proclamation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate these matters.
This is not the first time NSFAS has been involved in scandals surrounding the mismanagement of funds. In fact, NSFAS went under administration in 2018 due to mismanagement.
In 2021, it was revealed that thousands of "ghost students" were beneficiaries of NSFAS, which frustrated many as legitimate beneficiaries were stuck in limbo while waiting for their allowances to be deposited.
Also in 2021, NSFAS experienced a shortage of funds for first-time entering students, but reportedly had irregular expenditure of over R500 billion.
The SIU encourages all institutions of higher learning to come forward and pay back unallocated funds that are due to NSFAS.
