The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has repaid R311m in unallocated funds to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said on Tuesday.
The payment was for money paid to the institution between 2016 and 2021 for students who qualified for funding but either changed institutions or deregistered, the SIU said.
Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the funds, meant to stay in the tertiary institution's possession for a year, were supposed to be collected by NSFAS at the end of each year through reconciliation.
“However, the SIU’s investigation revealed NSFAS failed to design and implement controls that would ensure there is an annual reconciliation between the funds disbursed to the institutions and the funded list of registered students,” he said.
“To remedy this, the scheme has recently appointed a service provider to assist them perform this reconciliation in a process called 'close-out reporting'.
SIU claws back R311m in unallocated NSFAS funds from University of Joburg
Image: 123RF/ALLAN SWART
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has repaid R311m in unallocated funds to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said on Tuesday.
The payment was for money paid to the institution between 2016 and 2021 for students who qualified for funding but either changed institutions or deregistered, the SIU said.
Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the funds, meant to stay in the tertiary institution's possession for a year, were supposed to be collected by NSFAS at the end of each year through reconciliation.
“However, the SIU’s investigation revealed NSFAS failed to design and implement controls that would ensure there is an annual reconciliation between the funds disbursed to the institutions and the funded list of registered students,” he said.
“To remedy this, the scheme has recently appointed a service provider to assist them perform this reconciliation in a process called 'close-out reporting'.
NSFAS paid R5.1bn to students who did not qualify for a loan
“The payment made by UJ brings the total amount received from institutions of higher learning to approximately R349.3m since the inception of the NSFAS investigation in September 2022.
“The SIU encourages all institutions of higher learning to come forward and pay back unallocated funds due to the NSFAS.”
The SIU has been authorised to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration in the affairs of NSFAS and to recover any financial losses suffered by the state through corruption and negligence.
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