A cone of silence in our schools

Most Manawatu¯ -Whanganui schools rapped on the knuckles for poor financial practices or inappropriate spending remain tightlipped about details, but an expert says the public deserves transparency about how its money is spent.

Nineteen Manawatu¯ Whanganui schools came under scrutiny in a hard-hitting auditorgeneral’s report released late last year.

Since then, nine schools in the region were approached to find out more about how they came under the auditor-general’s microscope and what they have done since about the issues raised.

Fewer than half responded and only two in detail, much to the chagrin of John O’neill, the head of Massey University’s Institute of Education.

He said schools should be publicly accountable about financial issues.

‘‘The public fund it, so they should be held accountable for their use of public funds.’’

Among those not willing to open up about the report’s concerns is Dannevirke school Te Kura Kaupapa Ma¯ ori a Tamaki Nui A Rua, which flew 27 children, four staff and four parents to Rarotonga at a cost of $56,246.

Bainesse School, cited for being in financial difficulty and over financial conflicts of interest and inappropriately borrowing money, also stayed silent.

Every school named in the report had been contacted by Ministry of Education staff to talk about the issues cited, the ministry has confirmed, but it too would say nothing further.

O’neill said the public would likely be more understanding of mistakes made from oversight or ignorance and corrected than if malice or dishonesty was covered up.

Rangitı ¯ kei College was fingered for a conflict of interest. Its principal Tony Booker said that occurred when a board of trustees member was awarded a construction contract for two projects at the school.

The board member declared his interest in the projects and was not part of the sub-committee that oversaw them, he said.

‘‘The board and principal were unaware ... that separate Ministry of Education approval was required to contract a board member for works of this magnitude.’’

The board accepted the error and created a policy to stop it happening again, and there had been no misuse of public funds, Booker said.

Ballance School was listed in the report for inappropriately borrowing money and its board having limited control of some money handling.

No misspending had occurred, its board chairwoman Catherine Mabey said.

The borrowing appeared because the school joined a ‘‘programme maintenance’’ plan, where building maintenance was spread over several years.

The money handling issue related to about $2000 from fundraising projects like sausage sizzles collected by the parent community group.

The accounting work expected of the small group was not practical, so the group has been dissolved, and now run fundraising through the school and the school’s accounting.

‘‘The whole thing was a nonevent,’’ she said.

Mana Tamariki’s board chairwoman Leanne Clayton did not go into specifics about why the school was named for being in financial difficulty, but said the school continued to work with ministry officials to fix problems, ‘‘ensuring ... robust financial management’’ is put in place and filing overdue accounts.