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Pillay leaves behind much steadier ship - NYDA gets first clean audit under his watch

When Yershen Pillay accepted the chairmanship of the National Youth Development Agency board three years ago, his comrades told him he would not see out his term.

Pillay and other board members inherited an NYDA that was dysfunctional and known for instability in the board and in its management.

No one can forget how the agency misused public funds during the chaotic youth festival held in Pretoria in 2011 that cost R106-million.

The agency had spent millions of rand budgeted for the youth festival on balloons, confetti, musicians, poets, backpacks, caps, golf shirts, bottled water and a tombstone.

The festival, which was attended by other youth organisations from around the world, did not produce any resolutions. Instead, the youth in attendance were loitering outside the festival venue.

But Pillay, who is also chairman of the Young Communist League, said the fact that the NYDA has not been in the news for the wrong reasons since 2013 is a good thing.

"It means we have been scandal free. I am leaving the agency a happy man. The discussion in political circles and government in 2013 was to shut down the agency.

"Today that discussion does not exist. We have changed the culture and we are more professional and focused on helping the youth," he said.

Pillay's term of office ends on March 20.

NYDA is an agency aimed at creating and promoting coordination in youth development matters like education and supporting entrepreneurs.

The agency reports to parliament and in the past it came under heavy criticism for the exorbitant amounts it spent on salaries and not having concrete details about its youth programmes

But Pillay said all that has been sorted out. The agency had a staff complement of 400 people and he said they have restructured the organisation to reduce the salary bill.

"In the past, 40% of our R480-million budget went to salaries. But after restructuring only 32% goes to our salary bill.

"Over the next three years, because of restructuring, R200-million from salaries is going to be redirected to youth programmes over and above the money we receive from National Treasury," he said.

But what excites him is that the NYDA has received its first clean audit from the auditor-general since it was established.

"I don't think people understand the impact of the clean audit. When I took over in 2013, we had R133-million of irregular expenditure. We had a suspended CEO with no chief financial officer. The board was also new.

"If you had said to people then that the NYDA will one day receive a clean audit . they would have probably laughed at you and said you are insane, that is not possible," he says.

Pillay, who is a social sciences graduate from the University of Cape Town, admits that the NYDA in 2013 had 10 matters of non-compliance which had been raised by the auditor-general.

The matters included management of contracts, not following rules during procurement processes and there was no consequence management policy.

He said they were now fully compliant.

"We worked hard to have a united board and an NYDA whose board will finish its term without any hiccups.

"We had to make tough decisions in the first six months. We needed to adopt rules that will promote good governance and that management be the drivers of ethical behaviour," he said.

"We also put structures in place where management worked together and also work closely with branch managers. We ensured that managers are accountable to one another.

"We introduced the consequences management policy which saw those doing wrong things being punished."

Pillay said he would be leaving a legacy of an agency with a strong foundation that is stable, has integrity, and is capable of doing more.

He said in the past three years, the agency has helped 3.5million youth.

He is still worried that they need more offices in rural areas.

They have since asked municipalities to partner with them by allowing them to operate within the municipalities around the country.

"This has proved to make life easier for the youth where we have partnered with the municipalities. But some municipalities have said they are not sure of their statuses because they are not profitable and may be merged. So they are not able to commit."

When Pillay took over, the entrepreneur grant budget was R10-million and today it is R40-million.

Last year 2000 youth benefited from the grants.

He said the NYDA's best performing project is the matric rewrite project for those who did not pass and it has supported 6000 pupils annually.

"In my view we are also an example of what youth leadership can do.

"We have a board that is under 35 years old, senior management team that is under 35 years old. They are leading a now stable agency that manages a budget of R480-million."

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