The Auditor-General (AG) has red-flagged a R177-million, five-year lease deal the beleaguered National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) signed for Foreshore office space in the Cape Town CBD.
An AG report sets out that officials trampled on the scheme's supply chain regulations to seal the deal, News24 can exclusively disclose.
The hard-hitting report comes at a time when all eyes are on the troubled scheme for failing to pay for thousands of students accommodation allowances, leading to the threat of a student revolt, according to sources. It prompted Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande to put the scheme under administration and immediately dissolve the NSFAS board, and led to the resignation of board chairperson Ernest Khosa.