The higher education environment is one of the key custodians of potential growth for SA. The department is meant to oversee the effective functioning and accreditation of tertiary institutions while creating the conditions that allow young South Africans to access education by providing funding through the National Financial Student Aid Scheme.
In a country where almost 50% of the working age population is unemployed, the National Skills Fund (NSF) is meant to play a key role in the improvement of skills for those in rural areas, provide community development and develop skills towards priority occupations. The organisation aids TVET colleges with refurbishment needs and funds apprenticeships and learnerships, which are key to young South Africans being able to get and retain work.
The fact that the NSF received a disclaimed audit opinion in the 2020/21 auditor-general report, should be a major concern to the department of higher education and all South Africans. In that year, the organisation’s budget was just under R2,5bn and it has not been able to account to the AG about how that money has been spent.
A disclaimed audit opinion is no doubt the worst score the AG’s office can offer.
“It means that they could not provide us with evidence for most of the amounts and disclosures in their financial statements. As a result, we could not express an opinion on whether the financial statements were credible,” the AG says in the 2020/21 Public Finance Management Act report.
The NSF had previously received a disclaimer with findings, meaning it is not on a path to improvement.
MPs were right to send the department packing with its poor excuses and did not concede to the request that the report should be kept confidential.
This ungoverned spending of public funds has led parliament’s standing committee on public funds to ask serious questions about what is happening at NSF. These are questions that were meant to have been answered when the higher education department appeared before it this week, but instead of presenting a report into an investigation of the fund, the department requested the report be kept secret.
The reason for requesting secrecy was for the department to avoid legal action over revealing the names of those implicated in the findings, which are likely to be damning if the AG’s disclaimer is anything to go by.
The request by the higher education department is not only bizarre, as some MPs pointed out, but not supported by law or the constitution.
Departments can’t simply keep information from parliament, the body tasked with holding the executive to account, out of fear of litigation. The department has a responsibility, through section 10 of the constitution, to “promote efficient, economic and effective use of resources”, including public funds. The constitution also requires public administration to be accountable.
In addition to this, ministers of cabinet and deputy ministers “are not liable to civil or criminal proceedings, arrest or imprisonment or damages” for anything said before the National Assembly or any of its committees.” Section 58 of the constitution goes further to say that they are not liable for “anything revealed as a result of anything that they have said in, produced before or submitted to” parliament. This makes it clear that Blade Nzimande or deputy minister Buti Manamela could have provided parliament with the information on the investigation into the unaccounted for NSF funds, without fear of legal reprisal.
MPs were right to send the department packing with its poor excuses and did not concede to the request that the report should be kept confidential. In a rare meeting of minds, members of the ANC, EFF, DA and smaller parties were in agreement that the report should be presented and debated by the committee, publicly. Neither the minister nor deputy minister were present for the meeting, and the MPs reflected that the department appears to not be playing ball with parliament. The stance by Scopa was not only refreshing but necessary in a climate where too many government departments make flimsy excuses about why they cannot account to parliament.
The state capture period has taught us the dangers of having a softly-softly approach in parliament and Scopa cannot afford to be seen as an easy committee to get around. The thousands of graduates, TVET students and potential interns deserve to know how the NSF has spent, or misspent, its money in recent years.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.