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According to Stossel there is a financial corruption going on in American schools. He claims that there is a myth that the education system needs more money. US spend more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that obtain better results in the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money.

The Mayor of Ngoma District has issued a stern warning to school headmasters who inflate school registers with non-existent students and charge high fees on students sponsored by charity organisations. The authorities would punish anyone found guilty.

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.

Only 360 teachers representing 30% of the total of 1,197 teachers at the basic level in the East Gonja district are qualified. The remaining 70% are untrained. The education director indicated that though the introduction of the capitation grant had led to increased enrolment of pupils at the basic schools, very few teachers were available to teach them.

The Parliament has decided that schools cannot charge any money from students benefiting from the Universal Secondary Education scheme. The committee also wanted answers on examination malpractices, leakages and cancelled 'O' level results. It decided that when a candidate is deemed to have cheated in one paper, the candidate loses the whole examination.

A report from Fundación Grupo Civico Etica y Transparencia (EyT) was elaborated to show the results of the "Corruption Prevention in the Education System project". After monitoring large construction contract processes related to the maintenance of schools in rural areas, EyT found that a significant part of the Ministry of Education's public contracting budget had irregularities. It advised the Ministry to strengthen the quality control of materials and conduct regular internal audits.

There is a certain frustration at the Mpraeso Secondary School over the administration's attempts to improve accountability and transparency. The implementation of anti-corruption measures through the automation of accounting and administrative procedures as a means of checking and curbing corruption has been bogged by official apathy. The computerization programme, 'School Management Programme', that could have cost the school about ¢5 million a few months ago will now cost the school almost double that amount.