School Budget Development and Financial Accountability of Public Secondary Schools in Khwisero Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) raised concern about the misuse of funds in public secondary schools, warned principals in charge, and even indicated the interdiction of principals with financial anomalies. In Turkana South, the audit questioned the use of Kenya Shillings 29 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 statement anomalies have been reported in a number of schools in Khwisero Sub County. The school audit report indicated that some school managers had hidden fees that were not in line with the ones recommended by the government. The study objective was to assess the effect of school budget development on the financial accountability of public secondary schools in Khwisero Sub County. The study was guided by budget theory. The causal research design examined the cause-and-effect relationship between school budget development and financial accountability. A census survey was adopted in 25 public schools. Two respondents’ school bursar/accounts clerk and school principal were used for the study. This constituted 50 respondents. Data collection was aided by questionnaires and presented using tables. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. The study found that school budget development had a beta value of 0.309 and a coefficient correlation of 0.890. The correlation R between the mean of school budget development and the mean of financial accountability had a beta term of β = 0.827, P = 0.000. This implies that statistically, budget development was significantly positive. The study recommends that public secondary schools should align budget-making with government policies and school demands. Furthermore, stakeholders such as parents and the school board should be involved in budget formulation.