Suspensions could lead to more NSF instability

Xxxxxx. The department of higher education says

– XXXCREDIT the National Skills Fund won’t be further compromised as it battles to get to the core of the rot and stabilise its operations.

The NSF, set up mainly to support and upskill jobless young people and train much-needed artisans for SA’S long-term development, has been a mess for years.

The AG issued a disclaimer in 2021 as the fund could not account for about R5bn over two financial years.

The NSF, set up in 2001, is funded through about 18% of the skills development levy paid by employers based on the size of salary bill. The fund’s annual revenue is about R4bn. A forensic report found grounds to suspect corruption, fraud or theft in many projwect:s2a2n.d8u4rg1emd investigation by the Hawks.

As the probes continue, precautionary suspensions of implicated officials will be inevitable. Briefing parliament’s higher education portfolio committee at the weekend, officials said replacement officials will be asked to assist without compromising department activities.

DG Nkosinathi Sishi said the turnaround plan was urgent and those implicated could be held accountable without compromising the work of the entity.

“What we need to do now is to commit to a clear set of plans, interventions and time frames that seek to address this.”

The NSF was allocated R4bn for the 2022/2023 fiscal year and since 2018 has disbursed nearly R8bn to a variety of skills development programmes benefiting more than 407,000 individuals. But the AG’S findings for the 2019/2020 financial year — which the NSF disputes — prompted parliament’s standing committee on public accounts to demand a forensic report into 10 projects funded by the NSF to the tune of about R390m.