Parliament has lashed out at media reports Sunday regarding the institutions criteria for the allocation of bursaries for staff.
Spokesperson, Manelisi Wolela, said that the reports in some Sunday papers were “baseless rumours and farfetched fabrications.”
He said an outrageously false claim had been made that Parliament had sent a Ms Mtya to Columbia University at a cost of R1,1m.
“When Ms Mtya was employed by Parliament in 2016 following a lengthy search for a suitably qualified person to fill the CIO position, she had already been accepted at the said university and her studies were to be sponsored under her previous employer’s employee bursary fund,” Wolela said.
He said in 2016 Parliament invited staff members to apply for bursaries to study for this year through its allocated bursary budget of R1.5m.
“This has been the case annually. Out of a total of 155 funding requests received totalling R5.6m, which far exceeded the available R1.5m bursary budget, only 50 applications could be approved.”
“While Parliament would have liked to assist each and every applicant, the reality is that no budget is bottomless. To ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all staff members, preference was given to new applicants who have not previously benefited from the bursary fund and meet basic requirements.”
The criteria for allocating bursary to staff is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory. In this regard, claims made to the contrary are based on nothing but malicious rumour intended to tarnish the standing of Parliament and those who leads it.
