Here are the New Reporting and Accounting Format Guidelines for Secondary Schools

The government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education has introduced a new reporting format and guidelines for all public secondary schools across the country.

The new format will require all principals to report on school assets and revenue generated as well as review the current reporting format. This will align it with the ongoing reforms in the management of public finance for transparency and accountability in the utilization of public resources

A circular dated 19^th August 2021 signed by PS, State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education, Julius Jwan, indicated that the government through the ministry of education wants to improve the current reporting format used to audit secondary school resources and align it with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act 2012.

The circular which was addressed to the ministry demanded all principals in public secondary schools to abide by the new prescribed financial reporting format.

The format is designed to promote uniformity, transparency, and accountability in the use of public resources at the schools. It will also promote the understandability, completeness, and comparability of both financial and non-financial information prepared by the public secondary schools.

It also constitutes a responsibility statement from the Teacher. Here, he or she might be required to disclose the enrollment for the year is accounted for, report on the performance of the school in that year, number of teachers, and capacity of infrastructure.

The school Board of Management will be required to report on any development project proposed for the school in the year is accounted for.

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All public Secondary schools will e required o prepare a conventional Balance Sheet to report on the assets of the school.

The schools’ principals will account for donations received by schools like National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

Furthermore, revenue from fixed assets lies in land and buildings, movable assets like school buses, and biological assets like cattle and poultry will also be accounted for.

Change of school financial calendar

According to PFMA 2012, Regulations 2015, and Section 87 of the Basic Education Act, 2013, the Finacial Year of the Department of Education shall be the government Finacial year.

Therefore, the IPSAS Template has also changed the school Financial Reporting Calendar from 1^st January to December 31 to align with the government’s financial year which runs from 1^st July to June 30.

The financial statement should be ready by 30^th September 2021 in compliance with section 81 of the PFM Act 2012,” a section of the circular reads.

Schools that have submitted their financial statements for the financial year ending December 31, 2021, shall be required to prepare six months of financial statements from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.

Those that have not submitted their financial statement for the year 2020 on the other hand shall have to prepare a statement for 18 months from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

To implement this successfully, the ministry has stated that it will organize sensitization programs for officers, Heads of schools, Bursas, Boards of Management, Non-financial Managers, and all stakeholders.

In addition to this, the ministry together with the National Treasury and Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (PSASB) will continuously monitor the transition progress and give guidance where necessary.

This comes a few months after the ministry under its Department for Early Learning and Basic Education came under the spotlight for not properly accounting for over 58 billion shillings.

In the 2021/2022 Budget Statement read on June 10, 2021, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani allocated a 62.2 billion shillings for Free Dy Secondary Education including insurance under National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), for secondary school students.