The education ministry has requested forensic audits into the financial affairs of six black universities, writes Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
With black universities on the brink of collapse, the Ministry of Education has said that criminal charges will be laid against university managers if they are found to have abused taxpayers’ money.
This follows Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu’s statement last week that financial problems in black universities were due to bad financial managers.
Bengu has asked the auditor general to set up a team to conduct a forensic investigation into the financial affairs of the Medical University of South Africa and the universities of Transkei, Fort Hare, Zululand, North-West and the North.
The six have incurred huge deficits, have low student enrolment and have accumulated student debt totalling more than R200- million in the past three years.
“On the basis of the forensic audits, those who are found to have misused money will have to face criminal charges,” said education ministry representative Bheki Khumalo.
The culture of learning and teaching has collapsed. At Fort Hare University, for example, according to a report for the ministry by former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Stuart Saunders, most of the staff who turn up at the campus each day do not work at all.
“Something has gone wrong with the financial management in these six universities. We really want to get to the root of this financial crisis,” said Khumalo.
This week the scale of financial mismanagement at Technikon Northern Gauteng was revealed when students claimed officials had misused R600 000. Rector George Lenyai and five other officials were suspended by the institution’s council for alleged financial mismanagement and abuse of taxpayers’ money.
The parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education recently recommended that forensic audits be conducted in all the country’s 27 universities. But Bengu has singled out only these six because of their large deficits and improper financial controls.
At this stage, however, said Khumalo, “we are not necessarily considering closure of any of these universities, but the team that has been appointed will determine whether there is a need to close them down or what can be done to assist”.
In his report Saunders noted that Fort Hare lacks leadership. He charged that its administration fails to follow correct financial and management procedures.
Between 1990 and 1991 Fort Hare had 7 000 students with a government grant of R41- million. Today it has 3 500 students with government funding of R101-million, a financial deficit of between R40-million and R60-million, and outstanding student debt totalling R17-million.
But University of the Western Cape Education Policy Unit director Professor Saleem Badat says the financial problems at universities could be solved by bringing policy changes and building capacity among officials.
Badat adds that new management systems aimed at promoting good governance are needed at universities.
Badat, who believes financial problems should not be blamed only on corrupt managers and lack of financial management skills, says universities need to start building a culture of planning in order to detect problems and challenges.
He believes black universities have made a “strategic mistakes”. The institutions opened doors to students who did not pay their fees. And with the government’s subsidy cuts, black universities increasingly relied on fees to finance the institutions. This resulted in huge student debt.
More and more black students are leaving historically black universities for former white universities, which has resulted in low registration at black universities.
Badat says the education ministry’s audit of the six universities must point to potential and actual causes of financial problems they face in order to solve the problem.
The universities of the North and North- West are equally under-resourced and are often disrupted by students protesting over increases in tuition fees and financial exclusion. Both have overdrafts of between R30-million and R40-million and a student debt of more than R15-million.
The University of the North is also the subject of two investigations of alleged financial mismanagement.
Last year, Bengu appointed advocate Louis Skweyiya to investigate the University of Transkei. It has a student debt of about R16-million and with overdrafts projected at R34-million. Skweyiya’s report led to the departure of Transkei’s rector, Alfred Moleah.
The University of Zululand has had a lowest enrolment in years and the highest student debt of the six universities. By February 15 it had registered only 1 278 students.
The education ministry is expected to make its final decision on the fate of the six institutions after the forensic audits.