Schools rapped for ‘misuse of budget’

"Public schools should double-check that the miscellaneous budget is spent in furbishing schools with useful supportive educational equipment and not wasted on programmes favoured by principles," warned Mohammed Saeed Al Maskari, Deputy Director of Administration and Financial Affairs at the Abu Dhabi Educational Zone.

Speaking to Khaleej Times yesterday, Maskari said some schools waste money on stuff that are complementary and do not serve the academic programmes and might instead satisfy the desire of the headmasters.

"Some schools spend a lot of money in buying new furniture the principal thinks the school needs while we find the same school lacking essential items like musical instruments, stationery or other supportive educational equipment," he said.

He blamed the Ministry of Education for not chalking out clear criteria on budget management "a matter that resulted in mishandling of these financial allocations by some schools."

"The Ministry of Education has lately increased the annual financial allocations for schools four times, whereas kindergarten now gets Dh30,000, primary schools has Dh40,000 while the miscellaneous budget for secondary schools reaches Dh60,000. However, the ministry has not specify priorities for these schools to follow in dispensing this money in the best interests of students and the educational process," said Al Maskari.

He said the zone has asked the ministry to conduct a training programme for schools administration, taking into consideration that school principals are academics and need to get training on financial management.

"We have also approached the ministry with a proposal of preparing guidelines for schools administration to properly avail of the independence provided by the ministry in handling the budget," he said.

Al Maskari noted that if they proved efficiency, the ministry might also authorised public schools administration to handle the operational budget, besides the miscellaneous financial allocations.

On the chances of misappropriation of the budget, Al Maskari stressed that the zone implements stringent monitoring conditions that leave no room for schools for any kind of malpractice.

"The zone implements strict controlling system on schools concerning miscellaneous budget that some might describe it as complicated. Purchased items are registered with the school record which is subject to inventory check on a regular basis," he said.