Former students owe MoESD over P2, 4 billion

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has expressed doubts that it will ever recover over P2, 4 billion it is owed for sponsoring tertiary students over the past years, citing poor records management as a hindrance.

Permanent secretary Dr. Theophilus Mooko made the admission to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) when Selebi Phikwe West MP, Dithapelo Keorapetse inquired on what the ministry was doing to recover the money. “Records management has always been our major problem at the ministry. Some students have never returned money used while others are being overcharged. Our records are not good,” said the PS.

Asked whether those who have not returned the money will ever do so, he said it is possible because their books are not in good shape. “We have not given up but it has been an endless effort.

The government needs money but the system has also failed us. We need to step up the process to recover money,” said Dr. Mooko. He said their estimation and records have showed they are owed P2.4 billion. “But for those who we don’t have their records I cannot state how much they owe us,” he said when responding to a question from Keorapetse.

For the past years the ministry has been receiving the lion’s share of the national budget. This year they were awarded P10.64 billion. The amount of P2.1billion will be spent on new and continuing students which totals a 10 237 increase from 8 561.