By BONIFACE MULU
One of the major functions of the secondary schools boards of management is to ensure there is effective application of the principles and practices of the public finance management.
Making the remarks, the Kitui County Auditor, Mr. Henry Kisinga, said this is outlined in the relevant laws and regulations for effective discharge of the financial oversight in the respective institutions.
The BOM is therefore expected to ensure the effective management of resources,” Kisinga said.
He added that some key functions of the BOM is to oversee all the school’s aspects including its control and accountability systems and approve the expenditure and capital budgets.
Kisinga was lecturing the Kitui County secondary schools BOM members during a three-day capacity building training seminar organised for them by the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) at the Kitui Multipurpose Development Training Institute recently.
Ensure a strategic approach to the school’s future by setting major goals, policy frameworks and strategies,” the auditor said, adding that the education institutions are under statutory obligation to manage and account for public funds.
The Basic Education Act, 2013 mandates the BOMs to administer and manage school resources on behalf of the Education Cabinet Secretary, Kisinga said.
He said the Education Ministry requires all the schools to develop periodic strategic plans to guide the school activities.
He added that the school budgeting is the process of developing a comprehensively thought out plan on various sources of income with the estimated amount from each source and the anticipated expenditure categorised according to different vote heads.
It is imperative to note that the school budgeting is anchored on the strategic plan,” the Kitui County Auditor said.
He said the government grants, the parental obligation, donations, income generating activities, Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and bursaries are sources of revenue. On the stores management, Kisinga said the sound stores management fulfills the objectives among them of preventing the wastage and loss.
The continuing utilisation of supplies and obtaining a fair value upon the disposal of supplies. “Stores represent cash and the utmost economy in their use and accuracy in all transactions relating to them is essential.
To avoid unprofitable lock up of funds, the stocks must be kept to the minimum necessary or the efficient conduct of the institute,” the expert said.
Addressing the occasion, the Kenya’s Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Kitui County Director, Fredrick Ng’ang’a, told the participants:
“I appreciate the support that you have given my office and the institutions.” “This meeting is not for me. It is not for the principals.
It is for our children,” he added. The purpose of being a school BOM member is for the performance of that school, he told the BOM members.
For the education to thrive in Kitui County, you have to work with us as an office and we have to work with you as boards,” he told them.
The TSC official asked the board members to stop fighting the school principals. “I am not saying they are 100 per cent perfect but there are ways of solving the problems,” he said.
The principal is the school’s chief executive officer and she or he is the only key teacher in the school,” he added. And in her lecture, Mrs. Rebecca Muriuki from the KEMI educated the participants on the benefits of the learner friendly institutions.
The learner friendly institutions are important to the students because they (the students) benefit a lot from them, the educationist said.
The parents, the teachers and the communities also benefit from the learner friendly institutions,” Muriuki added.
