Minister Nzimande is upbeat about the National Skills Fund. Minister Blade Nzimande is pleased with the manner in which National Skills Fund (NSF) has been funding various projects aimed at catalysing government priorities in terms of the Higher Education and Training department’s mandate. The National Skills Fund has supported 164 projects during the 2013/14 financial year under the mandated key priorities as indicated below: NSF Funded Projects No. of Projects Human Resource Development Strategy of South Africa 1 National Skills Authority Ministerial 14 Government Priorities 116 Director-General Priorities 27 Skills Infrastructure 6 TOTAL 164 The detailed project budget and expenditure list can be made available on request by the interested parties. All NSF project funding proposals are evaluated by the NSF Project Grants Committee. Two categories of criteria are applicable to determine eligibility of applicants as per the NSF Strategic Framework for Allocation of Funds (2011 to 2016). The first category relates to those projects for which funding can be allocated and the second category relates to the applicant seeking funding from the NSF. The budget requested for each project is scrutinised as part of the funding proposal evaluation process. Each request for payment is verified by NSF staff during project site visits and expenditure is monitored against the project implementation plan, cash-flow and approved funding allocation. Surplus funds must be returned to the NSF once the project has been completed and this forms part of the project close-out process. Overspending on projects is prevented through strict budget control mechanisms, including the evaluation of every project payment against the project’s available budget prior to payment. As a result, no project exceeded its allocated budget during the 2013/14 financial year. “NSF funded projects are audited by the Internal Audit unit of the Department and the Auditor-General of South Africa. All of the these measures have ensured above board management, disbursement and monitoring of funds for the key projects intended to realise our mandate” said the Minister.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:55:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015