Education Ministry urged to probe alleged financial malpractices at The Royal College Primary

 Published on Daily FT 4th April 2024

https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Education-Ministry-urged-to-probe-alleged-financial-malpractices-at-The-Royal-College-Primary/14-760265

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The dire need to conduct a proper investigation by the Education Ministry on alleged financial malpractices at The Royal College Primary has been raised by vocal and activist old boy Padmasena Dissanayake.

Dissanayake in his submissions to Education Ministry Secretary Wasantha Perera, has alleged violation of the Ministry’s circular on collection of funds from parents using selected parent groups.

“The Royal College Primary, Nation’s premier Primary School, is flouting the Ministry’s clear instructions on refraining collecting funds from parents. It circumvents it by using Parent-Proxies and has been collecting massive amounts, suspected to be over a hundred millions of rupees each year,” Dissanayake has alleged.

Sharing details of last year’s collections per student received from a group consisting of parents, alumni and a few teachers, based on actual amounts paid by them, Dissanayake in his submissions to the Education Secretary opined, “It is well past time and cure Royal Primary of deep rooted corruption and financial misappropriation.”

Following are some of Dissanayake’s submissions: 

“How the Royal Primary circumvents Ministry’s circular on collection of funds from Parents:

1. Each class is directed to establish a class committee represented by several parents, identifying and nominating as President, Secretary, Treasurer, and a few ordinary members.

2.  Major fund collection requests are conveyed to the class committee or its Treasurer during meetings organised by the School Management. 

3. Typically, these meetings are chaired by school representatives (such as Grade Heads) and occasionally by the Deputy Principal of Primary. 

4. During these meetings, the management explains the purpose of the collection and the required amount of contribution per class. The School Management is ultra cautious not to provide any written directions.

5. Following these meetings, the Treasurer/Class Representative communicates the details to parents via WhatsApp group or through verbal communications. The Class WhatsApp group also includes the Class Teacher and the Deputy Principal Primary.

6. Parents then transfer the requested funds to the personal bank account of the class Treasurer. Once the collection phase is complete, disbursements are made to relevant parties such as suppliers or service providers.

7. Decisions regarding the selection of suppliers or service providers are always made by influential staff members or Grade Heads, even if there are alternative providers offering the same services at a lower cost. Subsequently, the Treasurer transfers funds to the chosen suppliers as instructed by the school Management and services are rendered. 

8. Based on the information available, no receipts or acknowledgements are provided to the donating parents, and all staff members are ultra careful not to handle money. The Treasurer, who is always a parent, collects funds from all parents of the class and makes payments to various service providers for the procurement of goods or services. It’s the Treasurer who always handles money but he never gets an opportunity to make decisions with regards to the total amount to be collected, amount per parent, which vendors to pay and the amount per vendor. All these decisions are made by the school administration (Deputy Principal, Grade Heads etc) and conveyed to the respective class Treasurers. Very clearly the class Treasurer is the cat’s paw.

9. Also, each class maintains a Class Fund, funded by the parents, to meet various expenses, covering everyday classroom essentials such as class consumables and drinking water. More often than not, these funds are utilised for purchasing gifts for Teachers, contributing to specific staff-initiated projects, and providing support for events organised by designated staff members. When the class fund runs out of money-meant for the entire year --then the class committee would make appeals to parents for additional donations, for such events as the annual “Pirith” ceremony.

Below is the actual contributions made by a parent of one of the students during the year 2023, excluding the facilities fee of Rs. 8,000 officially charged to each student:

The above estimate of 21 million is from one grade and the total could easily exceed Rs. 100 million a year from a minimum of 5 Grades. Usually at Grades One and Two, the collections are said to be much higher.” Dissanayake said the purpose of the circular issued by the Ministry is to avoid harassing the parents and the cited case represents a clear violation of the said circular by using the parents as “Cat’s paws” to overcome the restriction. It was noted that the concern is that none of these funds are acknowledged by the collectors and none of the procurement guidelines applicable to State institutions are followed in disbursing such collections. The funds are transacted through personal bank accounts which are not subject to any audit.

He has appealed to the Education Secretary to make an investigation on what Dissanayake alleges as “cheating tactics” used by the school authorities to take advantage of the parents who do not wish to come out and complain to any authorities of such malpractices