2. National Skills Fund (NSF) Mr M Macikama: CEO led the presentation which highlighted the following key issues: . The mandate of the NSF as per Skills Development Act (SDA) included; funding of National Priority Projects, funding projects for the achievement of the SDA and fund activities of National Standard of good practice in the SDA. . In terms of bursaries; R650 million undergraduate bursaries was allocated through National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to benefit 12 500 students and R106 million postgraduate bursaries was allocated through the National Research Fund (NRF) to benefit 1000 students a year. . FET colleges were allocated R800 million capacity building grant for expansion of National Certificate Vocational NC(V) and Report 191 intake to benefit 40 000 students. R1.5 billion was allocated towards FET colleges infrastructure development of 12 new campuses. . In terms of the New Growth Path (NGP) 35 projects were funded at a cost of R255 million to benefit 10 000 students per year. . Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) training projects were allocated R173 million to benefit 4000 learners per year. . Rural Development training projects were allocated R270 million to benefit 8000 learners per year. . In terms of University Infrastructure Development, the University of Pretoria (UP) was allocated R382 million towards expansion of medical and veterinary facilities, University of Johannesburg (UJ) was allocated R213 million towards development of work-integrated learning facilities for engineering students and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) was allocated R106 million towards development of renewable energy training facilities. . Other Skills Infrastructure Development included; National Institute for the Deaf (R44 million), Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (60 million), National Skills Authority (R60 million) and Credible Planning Mechanism & Integrated Post School Education System (R166 million). . NSF planned to improve its operational efficiency by improving projects monitoring and evaluation. Establishment of NSF operationally as Schedule 3A Public Entity was under way. . Finance: The operational budget of the NSF was R191 million for 2013/14. The annual revenue amounted to R2.2 billion. The net surplus in the account of NSF was R7 billion and the money was committed to projects over the period of four years. Under- spending in the compensation of employees was due to vacant posts not yet filled.