The Ministry of Education is in the process of drafting the school management handbook for government schools which will clearly outline and govern various procurement and payment processes.

Permanent Secretary Selina Kuruleca highlighted this during their submissions to the Public Accounts Committee on the 2022 Audit Report on the Social Services Sector.

Kuruleca says the ministry is targeting the fourth quarter of 2024/2025 financial year to finish the draft and proceed with stakeholder consultation before implementation.

She says they have 13 government schools, of which 11 are secondary schools and two are primary schools.

Kuruleca adds that currently the government schools are required to follow the school management handbook 2020 for non-government schools and the Ministry’s Finance Manual in the absence of the school management handbook for government schools.

The PS also says that submissions of acquittals for free education grants are not required for grant release and government schools will not be submitting acquittal reports however they submit monthly bank reconciliations.

“The Ministry has in place a process to check and verify all the reconciliations submitted by our government schools. Free education grants are released to government schools who comply with the grant payment conditions of which the conditions are subject of the submission of bank reconciliation and the completion of class audits.”

Kuruleca adds that the Ministry of Education has appointed an auditor for monitoring and auditing government schools.

She says the Ministry has also been conducting training in relation to the free education grants and procurement regulations for the government school buses and board of governors to create awareness on the processes and will continue to do so for process improvement plans.