This despite the fact that the province spent double what other provinces did, with over R374 million having been spent last year for transporting 37 000 school children. OFM News’ Pulane Choane reports that these revelations were made last week by the inter-ministerial task team that was appointed to intervene in the province after the National Government placed five of its departments under administration last year.

The task team will now make recommendations to the National Government on how it can to intervene by ensuring that the affected learners are attended to. According to a report dated 30 October last year, during an oversight visit to the province, the Committee noted that there were disparities between the number of children at the Provincial Departments’ Transport Department as well as the Education Department. The Department of Transport indicated that it only had 37 000 children on its database, while the Education Department stated that it had 61 000 learners.

The department, however, raised concerns that some service providers were inflating the number of children they were transporting. Meanwhile, the Committee has now recommended that the provincial transport department conduct an investigation into the alleged irregularities concerning Scholar Transport.

“Consequence management and the penalty clause should be invoked as part of the remedial action before the end of the 2018/19 financial year;

It is important that the province considers reviewing its funding model for scholar transport so as to reduce costs to ensure that the cost is market-related with immediate effect,” the report stated. Meanwhile, similar problems were noted by the committee at the Vyfhoek Primary School in Potchefstroom, where issues pertaining to number inflating, using drivers without public driving permits as well as unroadworthy vehicles were noted. It was also revealed that two months’ prior to the Committee’s visit to the school, the Special Investigation Unit had also paid a visit to investigate scholar transport challenges. With regards to the Vyfhoek Primary School, the task team stated that the Department of Education should conduct final route verifications and revise the contract so that a new contract letter can be awarded. The Department should also find a way to recover the money that was overpaid to the service provider who allegedly stated that they were transporting 70 learners from the primary school when in fact the actual number was 41 with immediate effect. The Committee suggested that the two departments work together in an effort to resolve their challenges. The Education Administrator working with the delegation on the matter suggested that one way of doing this would be by proposing that the scholar transport function is administered by the Department of Education, while the Department of Transport should only ensure that buses were roadworthy.

OFM News