National Student Financial Aid Scheme

• The Tracker has raised five flags for NSFAS and placed two under monitoring.

• Placing NSFAS under an administrator with questionable credentials may not address governance instability. Given low staff morale, it is critical to ensure that the new leadership has the highest level of integrity.

• While the presence of numerous investigations offers an opportunity for renewal and reform, the current working environment suggests organisational decline. This is not conducive to staff asserting their professional independence and resisting irregular practices.

• Repeated corrupt awards and financial malpractice indicate that an informal network was working to extract value from the institution, enabled by weak governance. Poor financial reporting has obscured accountability, and oversight mechanisms have failed to prevent this. While the influence of this network may be declining due to the departure of implicated senior officials, the possibility of state capture being present remains high.

• While delays or missed allowance and subsidised accommodation payments for students have occurred every year since 2022, and have been widely reported in the media, NSFAS has not quantified the number of students affected.4

Improper appointments, Co-opting key functions, Corrupt awards