The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) is an important part of the government’s laudable attempts to provide tertiary education to students from underprivileged backgrounds.
Through its efforts, tens of thousands of young people have been given a chance to improve their lives by attaining a university or technical college education. This has set them up to become contributors to the prosperous and enlightened society that is the promise of our constitution.
In the current academic year, 1.1-million students will be helped through the allocation of a budget of R47.6bn, a substantial amount of public money, the disbursement of which must be above suspicion.
It is understandable that Nsfas and the government would want to encourage new entrants. However, this cannot be done at the expense of students and the integrity of public funds
Which is why the recent suspension of the scheme’s CEO, Andile Nongogo, is to be welcomed as the agency probes claims that he involved himself irregularly in meetings to decide which companies would be awarded lucrative Nsfas contracts.
When the Sunday Times first began probing the findings of an investigation by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, we were assured that Nongogo had played no part in choosing winning bidders.
Last week, thanks to recordings of the proceedings of the bid evaluation committee, it emerged that Nongogo had in fact played a prominent role in the process.
It is unclear why Nongogo was appointed to this post in the first place. In his former role as head of the Services Sector Education & Training Authority (Sseta), Nongogo was central in allocating contracts to companies whose experience and track record were not immediately obvious, and that charged inflated prices for their goods and services.
To make matters worse, it appears that several companies that had benefited from his presence at the Sseta were among those favoured by Nsfas, and that he played a large part in arranging this.
We expect a full and thorough investigation into his role at the financial aid scheme, and that the top legal team brought in to conduct the investigation will be given all possible assistance to arrive at the truth.
It is understandable that Nsfas and the government would want to encourage new entrants to bid for the cash-disbursement service that the big banks have traditionally provided. However, this cannot be done at the expense of students and the integrity of public funds.
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