Topic Guide: Corruption in Education

Transparent and participatory budget processes need to be in place to monitor how resources are being allocated and allow public scrutiny and control over the use of education resources. Regular internal and external audits must take place to detect and deter fraud and corruption. Preventive measures, such as procurement guidelines, as well as transparency and monitoring procedures to track the flow of funds are instrumental to ensure that resources reach their intended destination. While internal systems of auditing are necessary, procurements must be open and ordinary citizens need to have access to information on the budgets of the national and district governments as well as schools and universities to be empowered to demand accountability. It is not enough, however, to grant access to this information, it also needs to be widely disseminated to all stakeholders. In Uganda, dissemination of public expenditure information to the public helped to reduce leakages in the education sector dramatically; from 1991–95 an average only 13 per cent of allocated funds reached schools, while by 2001 this was around 80 per cent.[1]

Introducing a funding formula for education finance has also been promoted as a means to prevent corruption. Formula funding refers to “an agreed rule for allocating resources to schools that specifies the quantum of finance that each school can spend”.[2] When accompanied by the publication of allocations to each school – on websites and in hard copy – to make budgets accessible for public scrutiny, this is likely to enhance transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption. Yet, this approach is not without risks as the coefficients in the funding formulas can be manipulated by misrepresenting facts. A principle might, for example, report excessive numbers of certain groups of students in order to boost the schools budget. Therefore, it is essential to include transparency measures in budget planning, allocation and execution to minimise the risks of this approach.