NSF denies accountability deficiencies in aviation skills funding

The National Skills Fund (NSF) has denied accountability deficiencies, or the implication that the state-funding entity was shielding aviation-related funding, “or any funding for that matter”, from scrutiny. The NSF said it operated within strict legislative and reporting frameworks and complied fully with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), the National Treasury guidelines and prescripts of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. According to the Acting CEO, Melissa Erra, that learner data in its annual report is presented in aggregate form, as required by its approved annual performance plan, rather than broken down by sub-sectors such as aviation.

This, she said, should not be interpreted as a lack of transparency. “The reason for the aggregation of data is because the NSF’s annual report is compiled in line with the approved annual performance plan, which requires learner data to be reported in aggregate rather than by specific sub-sectors such as aviation,” Erra said. In January,The Citizenreported that two consecutiveNSF annual reports painted a consistent picture of lack of accountabilityin how public funds are spent on aviation training.

In both reporting periods, for 2023-24 and 2024-25, the NSF acknowledges discretionary grant funding for aviation-related skills development. However, the reports point to a striking continuity of disclosure failures preventing the public from assessing whether these projects delivered value for money or meaningful skills outcomes. There are no approval dates, no fund distribution schedules and no clear indication of whether projects were newly approved, rolled over, delayed or completed. Aviation projects are instead absorbed into aggregated discretionary grant reporting, obscuring how much public funding individual entities received and over what period.