By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
An investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has revealed that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has paid over R5 billion from 2018 to 2021 to students who did not qualify.
The SIU said some 40,000 students were incorrectly funded by the NSFAS, adding that it had only managed to recover R38 million from institutions.
The SIU and NSFAS briefed Parliament’s finance watchdog Scopa (Standing Committee on Public Accounts) about its investigations.
The investigation permits the SIU to pursue any applicable civil action, including action involving the cancellation of agreements, recovery of losses or undue payments made due to financial mismanagement.
The unit is also allowed to provide recommendations for possible disciplinary actions or refer criminal matters against implicated parties to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Head of the SIU advocate Andy Mothibi told members of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday that they would leave no stone unturned in the investigations.
He said their work was to ensure that institutions received back what was due to them.
SIU chief national investigations officer Leonard Lekgetho said in Gauteng there were 17 000 students who did not qualify for NSFAS and received R1.9 billion.
Gauteng was followed by the Western Cape where there were more than 5 400 students under investigation with R787m that was given to them.
In KwaZulu-Natal there were 4 400 students and they were given R609m.
Lekgetho said in the Free State there were more than 2 600 students under investigation and the amount involved was R399m.
He said in Mpumalanga there 666 students and the amount involved is R55m and in the Northern Cape they were investigating 304 students who were given R22m.
Lekgetho said their probe has uncovered anomalies in the payments to some of the students. One of the issues they identified was that some of the students had dropped out of university but NSFAS continued to pay.
He further revealed that the SIU so far in its investigations has observed that it was difficult for Nsfas to identify fraudulent applications for student loans or bursaries in the past, because the agency did not have access to systems such as the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Department of Home Affairs.
At this stage it seems that there is an improvement in their access to such information – which puts them in a better position to verify the accuracy of the representations made in the applications.
“Inherent weaknesses and flaws in IT systems has prevailed. Systems are vulnerable and can be hacked with relative ease, resulting in the creation of fictitious students, payments being made to such fictitious students or to unauthorised persons,” he continued.
He added that the investigating unit has identified historical problems with the payment of landlords for student accommodation.