Only 6% of TVET Colleges receive clean audits, NSFAS in emergency mode and SETAs struggle
10 October 2018
According to the Auditor-General report in Parliament on Tuesday, only a tiny handful of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges (TVETs) were given a clean audit opinion in 2017/18. 3 out of the 50 Colleges were given the green light, while no fewer than 26 received qualified or adverse audit opinions. This is a major failure in the Higher Education system and indicates that the hundreds of thousands of students studying at these Colleges are at risk. Institutions with such weak audits tend not to be stable or well managed.
Less surprising was the adverse opinion given to NSFAS which collapsed during the course of this year and which has now been placed under administration. The legacy of the collapse is severe. In 2017-18 at least R284m was disbursed incorrectly to students – while there is a possibility that this might amount to as much as R1bn. Many other problems have emerged within the entity – a failing IT system, inadequate answerability, poor management, general systems failure, data inadequacy, skills shortages, lack of consequence management, sexual harassment, possible fraud, and many others. There is little indication that those responsible for these and other failings will be called to account.
Not only are the Colleges being poorly managed; and not only is NSFAS experiencing a complex and difficult emergency, but there remain problems in the SETAs which cannot be easily resolved. While ten of the 21 SETAS received clean audits, and only one received an adverse audit opinion, these are institutions that continue to be plagued by the problems of irregular expenditure, poor management, lack of consequence management and lack of direction.
This year’s audit indicates that Minister Pandor will have her hands full in rectifying these deep and intractable problems. And the several failing Universities remain a separate problem, not included in this audit, with which she is also attempting to grapple. This Ministry has become so vast, and so plagued by problems that it is at serious risk of further significant decay. Furthermore, the Administrator of NSFAS, Dr Randall Carolissen, predicts that up to 800,000 students will qualify for NSFAS funding next year and that this would be an enormous task to fulfil and fund while the institution is floundering and being fundamentally restructured.
The prospects for a smooth 2019 in Higher Education are poor.
Issued by Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education & Training, 9 October 2018
