By Peter Otuoro
Muranga County Director of Education Anne Kiilu has told all secondary schools in the county to adapt and apply International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) in order to enhance transparency and accountability in their annual financial reports of their schools.
Kiilu said the Public Sector Accounting Standard Board(PSASB), in consultation with the National Treasury and the State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education, has developed those guidelines to assist the public secondary schools in implementing IPSAS and to apply the attendant financial report template to enhance financial reporting in schools.
“The main aim of applying IPSAS during annual financial reporting is to promote transparency, accountability, equity, fiscal discipline and efficiency in the use of public resources for improvement of our service delivery,” said Kiilu.
Kiilu, speaking at Sunset Hotel in Nakuru City during a four-day bursar workshop training organized by Muranga County, told the over 400 bursars that the laws of Kenya require all secondary schools to prepare financial statements which should comply with relevant accounting standards as prescribed and approved by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of Kenya from time to time.
“Board of Management of secondary schools should keep all proper books and records of accounts of income, expenditure and assets of the institution. It’s because of this that the Public Sector Accounting Standard Board, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury have prescribe the IPSAS for public secondary schools,” she said.
The Murang’a County education boss highlighted the importance of applying IPSAS in public secondary schools to help achieve comprehensiveness in reporting financial matters, thus encourage the schools to fully disclose financial and non-financial information crucial for effective decision-making.
“In our efforts to adapt IPSAS, we will strengthen our accountability and transparency which will enhance the realization of the principal of public finance in public secondary schools as enshrined in Article 201 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010,”said Kiilu.
She also added that through adoption of IPSAS, the school financial statements will be compared periodically and stakeholders will come up with necessary interventions and control mechanisms in different accounting periods, creating efficiency of management and oversight authorities, including the office of the Auditor General.
Kiilu said in order to maintain transparency, the IPSAS reporting framework will provide a linkage between financial and non-financial information in public secondary schools, which will allow users to know how funds received by schools are used to ensure all objectives are met.
She also said harmonization of financial reporting through adoption of IPSAS and prescribed reporting templates will allow the key stakeholders like the State Department of Early Learning and National Treasury to prepare consolidated financial statements for public secondary schools, which will allow other stakeholders to access information relating to schools easily.
