Cape Town - The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has lifted its silence on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into maladministration and fraud at the scheme.
During a media briefing on the NSFAS 2023 application season, on Tuesday, NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo said the scheme was cooperating fully.
Nongogo said SIU investigators had been at the scheme’s offices for the past two weeks trying to understand its processes. Nongogo said the initiator of the SIU probe had come from within the organisation.
“The process of the SIU investigation started in 2016 when the administrator communicated with the SIU, based on some of the issues that had led to the organisation being placed under administration.
“So it’s only this year that the proclamation was issued. Of course the scope does look back from 2016 and covers up to the point when the proclamation was issued. This was not sparked by any new issues at NSFAS,” Nongogo said.
Nongogo said they now awaited the investigating which will be conducted in the next few days.
Minister Blade Nzimande welcomed the proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last month to allow the SIU to probe allegations of corruption and maladministration and to recover any financial losses through corruption and negligence.
The first part of the investigation will look into the management of NSFAS finances; and the second part, the allocation of loans, bursaries, and any other funding payable to students.
“Equally, I would like to send a stern warning to those who continue to defraud NSFAS and to indicate that together with our law enforcement agencies, we are following all the cases where there are suspected instances of fraud and corruption,” Nzimande said.
Earlier this month, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) announced it would launch a full-scale investigation into million rand tender corruption at the scheme, and will be sharing information with the SIU.
Nzimande dismissed this by stating that there was “no chaos at NSFAS” or any tender irregularities as claimed.