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From 1994 to May 2015…Over 17,500 UG students defaulted on loans – Audit reveals
A forensic audit into the University of Guyana’s Student Loan Agency (SLA) has revealed that from the year 1994 to May 2015, some 17,567 or 69.4% of 25,335 student loans were deemed delinquent because students were not honouring their indebtedness.
The report stated that during that period, the Government approved $9,489,453,973 through the National Budget or US$45.5M using the current rate of exchange of G$210 to US$1.
During the period – April 2011 to December 2014, $1,800,000,000 (US$8,571,429) was received through a process whereby the Agency Head is informed by the Budget Department that funds have been approved to be released to the Agency.
Loans issued during the audit period (academic years 2011-2012 to 2014-2015) amounted to $1,581,422,277 of which $1,432,669,005 was issued to students at Turkeyen Campus and $148,753,272 was issued to students at the Tain Campus.
The total number of students who would have obtained loans up to December 31, 2014 was 25,335 and the total value of the loans was $9,159,644,463. Of the total number of students who have received loans (25,335): 4,713 or 18.6% are recent graduates or are still students, 1,776 or 7% were able to repay their loans totalling $679,918,794 including principal and interest.
Five students had their loans written off while 1,278 or 5 percent have been paying.
However, they have not been up-to-date, the report showed.
It was stated that this is a clear indication that the then Ministry of Finance and by extension, the Agency, did not pursue the defaulters with a view to recover their indebtedness.
The Head of the Agency at the time when the report was conducted, Rawle Sue-Ho, advised the auditors that he was never instructed to operate the Student Loan Fund as a “revolving one.”
Sue-Ho further explained to the auditors that “Several attempts to have the Ministry of Finance/Government of Guyana address the high level of delinquency did not result in action. In addition, the Agency was/is not suitably staffed to pursue defaulting students. On the other hand, in excess of $12M is repaid monthly through deduction orders, the vast majority of which were implemented after action was taken by the Agency”.
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