Service with honesty
IN the Department of Education, everybody deserves to be compensated well, but apprentices deserve the best. Learners are the bread and butter of teaching and nonteaching personnel for without them, no schools and teachers. Honesty and fairness speak loudly when it comes to maintenance and supervision of schools for this affects the learners. Honesty and dedication in public service in the Department of Education includes proper utilization of the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).
But what is MOOE? The Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) is the allocated funds for public elementary and secondary schools that can be spent on activities and necessities (i.e. electricity and water) that can support learning programs and help maintain a safe and healthy environment in schools.
How much MOOE will the school receive would depend on the number of enrolment. This means that if the school has a big number of enrollees, it could expect a bigger MOOE and lesser if it has few enrollees.
MOOE is beneficial to the school. It is where the payment for the electric bill comes from; also minor repairs, remunerate travel/training expenses, procurement of instructional supplies and other operating expenses of the school. However, when this fund is not managed properly, can cause conflict between the principal and the teachers. Anytime, every school head has transparent records of expenses to the teachers concern. In this way, they show that that they can be trusted by being cautious in purchasing supplies and being able to post the monthly disbursements on the bulletin board inside the office. Many teachers are not vigilant in terms of how school heads utilize the MOOE fund. This is the reason why many school heads do not intend to minimize, or stop improper utilization of the MOOE.
The essence of transparency is given prime importance by any public and private institution as it want to ensure that the treasury is properly utilize for what is intended for, that is, public service. If the fund is allocated to be spent in the procurement of school supplies necessary in classroom teaching, so be it. If it is allocated to be spent to pay for utilities, then proper utilization of it is required. Government resources should be given importance of it provides essential services. Public servants shall aspire to ensure the proper, effective and efficient use of public money. It is everybody’s role to fight corruption. Everybody should be aware that what the government is spending in the department should be properly utilized and accounted well. In this way, government service providers will be the role models and true heroes in the eyes of the children. Marietta D. Pacalso