Search Page

Sierra Leonean civil society activists are working to improve accountability. The National Accountability Group (NAG) – the local chapter of Transparency International – used a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) to find out what had happened to school fee subsidies and learning materials designated for a sample of 28 schools in a rural district. NAG's survey came after an earlier Ministry of Finance PETS revealed startling figures about education corruption. In 2002 researchers found that 45.1 percent of the funds for school fees subsidies were unaccounted for and that nearly 28 percent of teaching and learning materials had disappeared.

The governor of the northern province of Nampula has ordered an enquiry of financial mismanagement at the city's main secondary school. The governor ordered that the provincial finance department and the education inspectorate produce a report within a week on the use of about 100 million meticais (about 5,000 US dollars) that is allocated monthly for the maintenance of the school. The school is suffering from broken windows and a shortage of furniture in some classrooms, just four years after it had undergone thorough rehabilitation.

The legal advisor to the Eduardo Mondlane University has denied that there was anything improper in giving scholarships to people who do not work at the university. In 2003 alone, over 147,000 US dollars, money that should have been used to send teachers to take further degrees abroad, in order to build up the institutional capacity of the university, were allegedly spent instead on the Vice-Chancellor's daughter, two children of the head of the universities public relations and 16 others.

A new approach in development aid could be fuelling corruption. Western countries are testing the "budget support model", whereby funds are given directly to the government in order to reduce poverty. A report claims that up to June 2002, government expenditure was not supported by the correct documentation.

Funds allocated for teaching and public services are often embezzled in Sub-Saharan Africa by corrupt officers, to the detriment of development.

Four days of rioting by secondary school students in Libreville last week highlighted a growing frustration with education cutbacks. Corruption and mismanagement of existing resources have contributed to declining standards in public services. The European Union and the Islamic Development Bank had allocated funds for the upkeep of the free school bus service. A newspaper accused the government of reallocating this cash to other areas such as election campaigning.

The auditor-general is investigating the financial office of the provincial government of the Eastern Cape, which gets $827,000 a year from the federal government for a scholarship fund that is supposed to benefit 650 to 700 students from the impoverished province. At least some of the scholarships have gone unpaid as far back as 1997.