Governance in Senior High Schools in Ghana. Are There Any Lessons from the Report of the Auditor General?

ABSTRACT

In recent times, there have been recurrent reports on financial irregularities persisted in a lot of Senior High Schools in Ghana by the Auditor General simply because of laxity in controls and disregard of financial rules and regulations. Financial control activities are aimed at achieving desired return on investment. Heads of institutions use financial statements such as budget and other financial tools to exercise financial controls in the form of using policies and procedures established by Ghana Education Service for managing, documenting, and reporting of financial transactions. Current hearings from Public Account Committee indicate that there are challenges in our public institutions. The study was undertaken to ascertain whether senior high schools in the Kwahu ridge have learnt lessons from the Auditor General‟s Report issued to and discuss by the public account committee in parliament of Ghana. Specifically, it explored the procurement processes in the Senior High Schools, examined the effectiveness of the internal control systems and the measure to improve the financial control practices in the institution. A single set of questionnaire was designed into three parts; A, B and C. Part A is solely designed to be filled by headmaster only while part B and C was filled by the accountant and accounts staff respectively. Apart from these, an interview was conducted with the Bursar. The survey reveals that the revenue and expenditure trend for the School shows that expenditure exceeds revenue due to regular changes in price levels. The School has put in place effective control practices such that financial transactions were backed by supporting documents. It is recommended that there should be periodic in-service training for the account personnel to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities.