Parliament, Tuesday, 21 August 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training has today received a briefing from the student scheme on progress in resolving payments to private accommodation and resolving outstanding student appeals where the administrator at the National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has laid bare what he called unavoidable risks posed by the rise in the emergence of private student accommodation in post-school education sector.
According to the administrator, NSFAS has made payments totalling R1.6 billion in private accommodation at the Pilot institutions and of this R311 million was paid to NSFAS to accredited TVET Colleges accommodation providers and R1.297 billion to NSFAS accredited university accommodation providers.
Some of the private accommodations are not offering suitable accommodation especially in rural areas and some students enter unfavourable contracts with landlords. On student appeals, NSFAS said it has received 94 469 appeals and 63 percent were resolved while 35 226 appeals remain unresolved and anticipates finalizing them by first week in September 2024.
The committee welcomed interventions which includes setting up task teams for engagements around student accommodation with landlords being part of the process across the country to mitigate against possible risks of instability. Furthermore, the administrator informed the committee that he was in the process of initiating a review of the NFAS organogram to ensure roles and responsibilities are aligned with organizational and strategic objectives.
The committee said there was a need for a skills audit at NSFAS as this will assist in dealing with identifying unsuitable employees that contribute to creating a chain reaction that ultimately inconveniences students.
The administrator also said part of his responsibility was to fill critical positions such as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Internal Auditor and that these recruitment processes were close to finalisation. The committee called for the finalisation of the recruitment of critical posts at NSFAS especially that of Chief Internal Auditor as a matter of urgency.
The committee welcomed the admission by the administrator that NSFAS does not possess credible student data and that it was vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The committee recommend that NSFAS needs to ensure that it strengthen its ICT systems as a matter of urgency to curb student data falling into the wrong hands.
The chairperson of the committee, Mr Tebogo Letsie, said the department must do the forensic investigation on the National Treasury funds that were given to NSFAS to improve the ICT systems that were never improved, and should the forensic investigation show money was siphoned from the entity then people must be charged criminally.
Mr Letsie said: “We are going to conduct oversight over NSFAS until things turn around and going forward, the committee will need to be provided with a monthly report on what the scheme is doing with appeals, payment of student accommodation and allowances.”
He added: “NSFAS cannot claim not having enough money on its administrative budget to hire staff to solve problems of students while at the same time renting a building at a cost of around R2 million a month.”
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING, MR TEBOGO LETSIE.
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