NSFAS accused of wasting almost R 20million on rental they are yet to utilize

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The allegations of wasteful expenditure and incompetence in the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) continues to surface and this time around the allegations comes from United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader and Member of Parliament Bantu Holomisa.

In a letter addressed to Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and the Hawks shared by Holomisa on his twitter account, he alleges that the NSFAS wasted almost R 20million on renting a building they haven’t fully used.

He said he received this tipoff from a whistleblower.

“I recently received a disturbing information from a whistleblower that shows serious alleged waste of money at the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) this whilst students are not getting paid in time and others are denied the opportunity to access much needed funds at all.”

“NAFAS recently moved to another building using a turn key solution, from a building where the rent had been R 500 000.00per month, to one where the rent now approximately is R 1 698 647.05 per month. This is a massive increase in expenditure, and i have informed that many offices in the new building remain unused, which is again a tantamount to wasteful expenditure.”

He also said that they had paid the above mentioned rental money for a rental they had not occupied from December 2021 to September 2022 amounting to an estimated R 19 686 470.50 wasteful expenditure.

He added that it also did not make much sense taking into consideration that parts of the period for fell into Covid-19 lock down where staff members were working from home.

It is also said that they had been renting a hotel to conduct their business because the building they had rented was yet to be ready even though they paid.

Holomisa completed the letter by asking both the Hwaks and SIU to investigate the allegations.