Mr LB Gaehler (United Democratic Movement) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
(1) Whether all schools registered in terms of section 21 of the Companies Act, (Act 61 of 1973), comply with the relevant financial requirements; if not, how many of these schools did not comply in the 2009/10 financial year;
(2) Whether any legal action was taken for misappropriation of funds; if not, why not; if so, (a) how many persons were found guilty of misappropriation of funds at each school and (b) what steps has her department taken to recover these funds?
Reply:
(1) Public schools cannot be registered in terms of section 21 of the Companies Act and therefore compliance with the relevant financial requirements of this act is not applicable to them.
The provincial head of department may allocate to a governing body of a public school one or more functions listed under section 21 of the South African Schools Act (SASA), (Act 84 of 1996).
These functions are allocated to governing bodies based on an assessment of whether the governing body concerned has the capacity to perform the particular functions.
Independent schools may be institutions which have been registered in terms of section 21 of the Companies Act. These independent schools are however not monitored by provinces in terms of their compliance to the Companies Act but rather for their compliance to SASA as well as, if funded, to the provisions of the policy, national norms and standards for school funding.
2. Schools resort under the jurisdiction of provinces and the taking of disciplinary or legal action for misappropriation of funds at schools as well as the possible recovery of such funds are therefore carried out by provincial education departments.
No database of information relating to this is kept by the Department of Basic Education.
Information as required by 2(a) and 2(b) should be available from provinces.
Source: Department of Education
