The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) uncovered irregularities in the hiring of service providers to give out bank cards to the beneficiaries of the National Financial Student Aid Scheme (NSFAS). This was revealed in a recent investigation the body conducted.
The NSFAS had announced that beneficiaries of the scheme (in tertiary institutions/ TVET) would start receiving their allowances as well as making transactions via the scheme’s bank card.
OUTA would fault the whole setup as, according to the body, its investigations revealed that the NSFAS had hired service providers who had no banking license to pay student allowances at excessive rates.
OUTA also claimed that the NSFAS had hired a company which provided cloth masks in the hit of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 to execute an IT. How that was even remotely possible – a cloth mask company working on information technology – is something they have been unable to answer.
What’s more? OUTA claimed that the NSFAS while slashing subsidies for student accommodation, had rented an expensive office accommodation for itself.
This isn’t the first time the NSFAS has had issues and from the look of things it wouldn’t be the last. Of course, we will be out here to share new developments with you. Stay tuned.
