Service provider distances itself from R14m bungle

THE stakeholders responsible for the error that led to R14 million being deposited onto the meal card of a Walter Sisulu University (WSU) student, Sibongile Mani, yesterday refused to accept responsibility.

Yesterday Parliament’s higher education portfolio committee was briefed by WSU, payment company Intellimali and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Mani sparked a storm after she blew more than R800000 when R14m was erroneously deposited onto her card instead of the monthly R1 400 allowance in June.

Intellimali has since instituted a forensic investigation and lodged a criminal case with SAPS. It has repaid WSU the money which was spent by Mani.

Briefing the committee, WSU vice-chancellor Rob Midgley described the overpayment as “extraordinary” and that it had caused enormous reputational damage.

“This has been a massive wake-up call to everyone. The institution has seriously suffered as a result of this.”

He said WSU was in support of any process to investigate the matter.

“We are not suspecting rogue behaviour from our staff members. We do feel that we must make a calm and rational decision without victimising anyone, but investigate and see who is or are the people to be taken to task.”

He told of a spreadsheet containing amounts due to individual students, sent to Intellimali, which it uses to upload to its systems.

Midgley maintained that the spread was “accurate” with names of more than 14 000 students including Mani.

He explained that the error was picked up by the university’s institutional-based system of reconciliation of the distribution of student funds from its campuses.

“There was a delay in reconciliation. We were handing over from campus to institutional-based systems when we picked up the discrepancy…

“The nature of transactions as it is can’t be the work of one individual. There are others that may be masterminds. Time will tell,” Midgley said.

Intellimali chief executive Michael Ansell said his company has an excellent track record.

Ansell said their systems showed that the spreadsheet containing details of 3 735 students were correct except for two that were rejected because of invalid student numbers.

He said the file was processed correctly and no error report was registered.

“In simple terms, there was no oversight, no error or negligence,” Ansell said.

He told of how Mani had checked her balance several times before she started spending the money.