Ministers tussle over delayed payments for education assistants

Employment and labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth has called on the basic education department (DBE) to submit supporting documents to process delayed payments of stipends for education assistants and general assistants for September.

These are verified monthly attendance registers of 158,000 assistants employed in 20,000 public schools and funded outside the National Treasury allocations.

The basic education ministry, however, says the onus lies with the department of employment and labour (DEL).

Meth said the payment process is in accordance with a service level agreement (SLA) signed between the basic education department and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC). She said the programme is governed by a multiparty funding agreement (MFA), which requires strict compliance before releasing the funds.

“In terms of contractual agreement between the DBE, the DEL and the IDC, the SLA states the beneficiary (DBE) must upload attendance registers on the 15th of every month for the payment to be processed by the DEL,” Meth said.

Of the R4bn the department contributes towards the initiative, it transferred more than R1bn in June as the first tranche to enable the project rollout. However, the DBE did not submit supporting documents on time for September, which the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) requires to process payments.

“Releasing the funds without due process would undermine good governance, expose the UIF and the department to audit findings and irregular expenditure and compromise the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) principles that bind all government entities.

“The department’s commitment to the PFMA, Treasury regulations and the signed MFA is not red tape. It is a duty to South Africans to safeguard public resources, to ensure programmes are credible and to guarantee future public employment programmes retain the trust of the public and the beneficiaries.”

Meth assured education and general assistants that payments will be processed once the department receives attendance registers from the DBE.

“While compliance must be upheld, I am conscious of the hardship experienced by thousands of young people awaiting their stipends. We urge the DBE to accelerate the collection and submission of outstanding attendance registers for the UIF to process the second tranche without delay once compliance is met.”

However, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said her department has submitted all required documents.

“The DBE has done everything to comply and submit all verification documents to ensure our education assistants are paid without further delay,” Gwarube said.

“Their work is invaluable in our schools. The payment of education assistants isn’t the responsibility of the DBE. It is the work of the department of employment and labour.”