Principals and school governing body (SGB) members see schools as cash cows and also use the finances as pocket money.

And the lack of financial and accounting policies are what lead those handling school finances to misuse the funds.

"Sometimes we as principals claim too much for transport, unnecessary trips, as a result of temptation ..."

These revelations were made in an article published in the South African Journal of Education.

The article, titled "Causes of financial mismanagement in South African public school: The view of role players and the research", was conducted by academics from University of Pretoria's faculty of education. The academics interviewed principals, finance officers and department officials from Limpopo about their perceptions and experiences of the possible causes of financial mismanagement in public schools.

Most participants indicated that SGB members and principals lacked the skills, knowledge and expertise to manage school finances, citing this as the main cause of financial mismanagement in public schools.

"Principals assist SGBs and teachers to overlook their own finance policies, violate their budgets and not adhere to financial prescripts for self-enrichment with state funds," said a department official.

This, the academics found, suggested that the participants must have been intensively and thoroughly trained to handle school finances. Most of the participants said temptation also plays a major role in financial mismanagement.

"The majority of the principals in the selected schools were honest enough to shoulder the blame for the financial mismanagement in their schools. These principals indicated that principals, teachers and SGB members are embezzling monies as a result of the temptation to do so," reads the article. A principal said they use "dubious" activities to abuse school funds even though they know they are going to get into trouble.

"There are temptations and personal gains. Principals take financial books to their friends for auditing, where they end up influencing the outcomes of the audit.

"They hide financial irregularities through collusion with auditors," said a department official.

The article found that collusion, kickbacks, inflated prices and signing of blank cheques are the order of the day at schools.

The article mentioned that some participants mentioned that there was "ignorance" of monitoring school financial books by principals, some of whom are "controlled by personal interests".

"Most of the principals are just interested in appending signatures, which sometimes authorise financial irregularities," said a principal.

The academics concluded that "there is no sense of morality and professional ethics and integrity when dealing with public funds".

Among some of the recommendations they made was for those responsible for school finances to undergo intensive training on financial management and governance, have the Department of Basic Education monitor and control the auditing process of school financial books at the end of the year and report cases of financial mismanagement.

macupeb@sowetan.co.za