Scopa wants the Higher Education Minister or deputy to brief them

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) sent the officials from the Higher Education Department packing, saying it needed the minister or his deputy to brief them.

MPs say that Deputy Minister Buti Manamela is best placed to answer their questions on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the National Skills Fund.

The department was scheduled to update Scopa on investigations into the two entities.

The Auditor-General found irregularities with procurement, direct payment mechanisms as well as governance and administrative challenges at NSFAS.

Recent reports pinned corruption through the National Skills Fund at over R200 million.

Manamela apologised to Scopa hours before the scheduled sitting.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Mazwi Blose says Manamela’s snub, shows no regard for their constituents.

Blose says, “The Deputy Minister to send us an apology this morning (Tuesday), not to come it shows the disrespect he has for the people but also for this committee Scopa and obviously what makes it worse the Deputy Minister, Buti Manamela, was the Deputy Minister in the previous administration, so he’s basically perfectly placed to come in and give us an account of what was happening because he will understand the transition of the sixth administration to here.”

“So we are really disappointed and we’ve asked that the chair of the committee sends a strong message to him and to the deputy president who is the leader of government business so that we don’t enquire such going forward.”

The Democratic Alliance (DA) MP, Faraht Essack says he wants to know what plans are in place for consequence management.

Essack says,” AG has quantified that again the financial statements remain irregular and there seems to be no strong action plan as yet into what the department is going to be doing into accountability.”

The African National Congress (ANC) MP, Helen Neale-May says ministers and their deputies should appear before the committee when told to do so.

She says, “Scopa needs to be taken seriously, so I think going forward let’s look at it from a positive, going forward now Minister and Deputy Minister know that when Scopa sits they need to be here and be accountable.”

Related video: NSFAS feedback on disbursement of funds: