The Education Ministry’s finance unit has picked up on cases of heads of schools signing blank cheques.
The ministry’s finance director Thomas Prasad told the Fiji Head Teachers Association 42nd annual conference in Nadi last week that in these cases, strict financial procurement policies were not followed.
“We’ve noticed some head schools having cheques being signed blank,” he said.
“You know who you are, and these are some of the things that we’ve picked up. Because of that, we also see that there are some heads of schools that are related to other stakeholders that affect their ability to deliver in terms of procurement.”
Mr Prasad said this impacted the school manager’s ability to sign procurement forms and therefore affected the child.
“In regard to procurement, the resources and training has been given.
“You are there, you have been appointed to that role, and we hope that you’re able to uphold that standard so that the children are able to see you and see a leader in you.”
Mr Prasad said such cases bring to question the head of school’s ability to lead an institution.