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NSFAS Administrator, Dr. Randall Carolissen.
- Claims by the National Union of Education, Health and Allied Workers about government funding applications for 20,000 students disappeared last year.
- Nehawu has blamed the administrator of the National Student Financial Aid Program, Randall Carolissen, for the applications fiasco.
- The union also claimed that Carolissen unilaterally restructured the existing organizational structure, creating new positions and making other positions superfluous.
About 20,000 applications for financial aid for government students disappeared after being touched by the “hand of God.”
According to the National Union of Education, Health and Allied Workers (Nehawu), around 20,000 students applied for funds from the National Plan for Student Financial Aid (NSFAS), but the applications were withdrawn without anyone touching the system, causing them to requests will not be processed. .
Nehawu claims that student applications disappeared in the 2019 application cycle.
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This came up during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Science on Friday, where Nehawu made a presentation on the wrongdoing at NSFAS.
In his presentation to the committee, Nehawu said: “In other cases, the hand of God may withdraw the application after the student has been funded. The impact is that the student will not be able to register.
“There are only two employees in the disbursement unit, namely a specialist and a disbursement officer.
No experience
“The execution of disbursements is carried out by ICT developers without experience in the process.
“The files still have to be manually reviewed for errors. The transfer between the operation and the financing of the payments is still done in spreadsheets.”
The union claimed that NSFAS administrator Randall Carolissen had unilaterally restructured the existing organizational structure, creating new positions and making other parts redundant.
“The manager has appointed employees in excess of the 465 employees approved by the board. The current number of employees is over 500, and NSFAS continues to recruit more employees. The critical list changes daily based on mood and brain waves The manager created a fluid critical vacancy list after dissolving the approved board structure, “Nehawu said.
In response, Carolissen said there were several disciplinary charges pending against various senior managers.
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He said there were also criminal investigations into syndicated fraud that were revealed during forensic investigations.
“These accusations continue to appear in the media, in the Public Protector and in Parliament, and have yet to gain traction. However, this distracts and calls into question the reputations of professionals who work hard to restore integrity and integrity. NSFAS handover as anticipated in its mandate, “he said.
Carolissen said the circumstances that led to the development of the critical vacancy list and the appointment of the advisors began in October 2018.
“The organizational structure that existed at the beginning of the administration included a high-level management structure with a dearth of technical skills to address key strategic risks. This, coupled with a limited administrative budget, required a reprioritization of budget and establishment from the list of critical vacancies to progressively acquire the technical skills necessary to contribute effectively to the achievement of the NSFAS core operational mandate, “he added.
Committee chair Philly Mapulane said a follow-up meeting would be held in the coming weeks to further deliberate on the matter.
