School Accounts Management and Financial Accountability of Public Secondary Schools in Khwisero Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all, school accounts management comes as top priority. However this has not been the case as the teachers service commission raised concern on misuse of funds in public secondary schools and warned principals in charge and even indicated interdiction for such cases. In Turkana South, the audit questioned the use of Sh29 million to buy three school buses failing the school budget implementation plans. There were no logbooks for the said vehicles.According to Audit reports on public secondary schools, financial statements anomalies have been reported in a number of schools in Khwisero Sub County. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of School Accounts Management and Financial Accountability of Public Secondary Schools in Khwisero Sub-County. Specifically, the study sought to establish the contribution of school budget development, school budget implementation, and school fees collection strategies on financial accountability of public secondary schools in Khwisero sub-county. The study further established the moderating influence of school factors on the relationship between school accounts management and financial accountability of public secondary schools in Kenya. The study was guided by fund accounting technique theory, budget theory and agency theory. The study employed descriptive surveyresearch design. The target population had 51 stakeholders comprising of the principal and the bursar per school, this entailed 25 public secondary schools in Khwisero sub-county, Kenya. Using census survey, all 51 stakeholders were incorporated as the county schools auditor was incorporated in charge of all schools under study. Structured questionnaires were used as the instruments for data collection. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (pearson correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis). This was aided by statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23. Data was presented by use of tables. The study found that School budget development R2 of 0.827, School budget implementationR2 of 0.71 and fee Collection strategiesR2 of 0.504 had a positive and significance influence on financial accountability of public secondary schools in Khwisero sub County, Kakamega County. Furthermore school factors had a moderating influence thus R2 increase of 0.015 on school accountsmanagement and financial accountability of public secondary schools in Khwisero sub County, Kakamega County. The study recommends that on school budget development, public secondary schools should seek an increase in budget allocation from the ministry of education for each child to increase fund generation. Public secondary schools should ensure budgets generated are realized and funds should clearly indicate the expenditures realized. Public secondary schools should find means in which fee collection can be enhanced to ensure there is adequate cashflow and since school factors has significant effect on financial accountability, it should also be included into main key elements that public secondary schools should consider when handling school fund accounts. The study may be of benefit to the ministry of education, school managers, accountants as far as school accounts managamant is concerned.Scholarscould benefit through knowledge addition.