In a bid to curb corruption and financial malpractices, the Education Ministry has decided to make it compulsory for school authorities to maintain accounts of their school development societies according to the accounting standards and concepts stipulated by Sri Lanka Chartered Institute from January next year, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said yesterday.
The Education Minister told the Daily Mirror that he instructed the National Institute of Education to work out instructions in consultation with Sri Lanka Chartered Institute and Associated of Accounting Technicians (AAT) to issue the circular in this regard.
The Minister said all 340 national schools and 1000 secondary schools to be upgraded are required under the initial phase to keep accounts in conformity with modern according standards and concepts.
“Currently, there is no such legal requirements to maintain annual accounting reports and balance sheets to be submitted for auditing if necessary. Later, it will be made compulsory for all the schools. In their reports, they are required to depict their assets and liabilities properly. This will compel school principals to issue receipts when accepting donations from anyone. This will be a step for the elimination of corruption and malpractices,” he said.
Recently, he said that there was a competition to select the school which submitted the best accounting report.
“Only over 100 schools submitted their accounting reports. The event was organized by the AAT. Pushpadana Balika Vidyalaya in Kandy has submitted the best report,” he said.
DailyMirror