The Public Accounts Committee has found some secondary schools abused the funds given by the Ministry of Education for developing the schools as Centres of Excellence (COE) in 2005.
The committee says the funds were used for other purposes and not according to the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed by the Ministry and the schools.
The findings are part of the committee’s latest report on the whole of government for the period 2005 to 2006.
The Public Accounts Committee according to the Auditor-General’s report Special Investigations 2/05 says there was a laxity in the supervision and monitoring of projects carried out by the recipients of the fund given by ministry.
The report said that one such policy was the development of the Centres of Excellence (COE) to lift morale, commitment and educational performance of indigenous students.
Three schools were selected for COE namely Naitasiri Provincial High School, Nadroga Navosa Provincial School and Nabua Secondary school.
The report also said that COE projects was later changed to focus only on State owned schools because of the mismanagement of funds in selected provincial schools.
The report highlighted that a MOU was signed between Naitasiri Provincial High School and Ministry of Education in 2002 for the school’s improvement.
However, funds were diverted to accommodate other unauthorized purchases.
These include the purchase of school uniforms for students, purchase of suits for the Naitasiri Rugby team and chiefs of the province and purchase of materials worth $2273 from HP Kasabia for the school principal’s residence in Suva.
The Public Accounts Committee who compiled the reports found out that the school lacked selection criteria and never submitted its application to the Ministry of Education for its inclusion in the COE programs.
It concluded that anomalies arose from the laxity of the school management’s lack of monitoring of the progress of the COE projects amongst other matters.
It also highlighted the lack of an official handing over report to new board members of the school.
In Nadroga – Navosa, the committee noted the misuse of COE funds on activities not included in the MOU.
An investigation by the committee revealed that the school had much bigger plans than what the grant was initially allocated for.
The committee also noted that Nabua Secondary School did not advertise the tender for the construction and upgrading of the school as agreed to in the MOU.
It also found out that portion of the fund was diverted to other purchases not included in the MOU.
The school failed to verify the balance of $117,791 from the COE fund, which was not available from its last bank statement on its utilization, the report said.
The committee raised a possibility of misappropriation of funds and indicated lack of monitoring by relevant authorities.