Parliament's higher education committee rejects NSFAS' financial report tabled by AG
NSFAS has received an adverse audit opinion from the AG's office - which means financial statements provided by the scheme were unreliable.
The NSFAS logo. Picture: @myNSFAS/Twitter
CAPE TOWN - Members of the portfolio committee on higher education have rejected the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)'s 2021/2022 financial report tabled by the auditor's general's (AG) office on Wednesday.
NSFAS has received an adverse audit opinion from the AG's office - which means financial statements provided by the scheme were unreliable.
The AG's office has attributed this to poor systems and a lack of capacity within the scheme.
Committee members said they cannot entertain a report that is not a true reflection of how funds have been used.
African National Congress member of Parliament (MP) Tebogo Letsie said NSFAS must come back in a few weeks with a report they can account for.
"It might be that we are being distracted to look at something else whereas there's a bigger problem. We gave NSFAS about R45 billion in this financial year, and they claim to have used R37.8 billion or around that. If you look at how they claim to have used this money, it doesn't make sense."
Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mandla Shikwambana echoed Letsie's sentiments.
"This AG's report tells us that we have a serious crisis at NSFAS, and we have trusted people with the responsibility of looking after the finances of our people and these people are not doing that."