By:  Ma. Teresa P. Gayon

AA III – Budget Officer Designate

Should school administrators practice transparency on fiscal management? Some administrators believe that transparency will help build the morale of teachers, students, and the community. Others believe that keeping public financial records from the public eye will help run their schools/office smoothly. As a public servant,I strongly believe that transparency is key to the Philippine’s desire to clean up our supposed to be perceived corrupt government.

Transparency is defined as the state in which all relevant information is fully and freely available to the public. It is the responsibility of all agency heads to make sure that the general public is well informed especially when it comes to financial matters.

In the school level, for example, it is the primary responsibility of the School Principal to be transparent.  He or she plays an important role to get things move in his or her school. He or she is also responsible for making decisions, coming up with the school’s programs and projects, as well as motivate people to get involved in helping students improve their scholastic achievement.

There are many ways a principal can be transparent. One is by simply posting a financial report in the school bulletin board everytime an activity is undertaken or sending letters to parents containing the financial report. Establishing a school newsletter where he or she could post financial reports could be another.  Including financial reports discussion during General PTA meetings is also helpful.  A more modern approach is, probably, have someone set up a school website wherein the teachers, students and the community are regularly updated of the school activities, issues, and, can have easy access to financial reports of the school, if needed.

We need to understand that the road to cleaning up our government out of corruption is not an easy task. Transparency is but one of the main task that we should consider seriously into consideration, if we are to achieve a corrupt free administration.  As Reuben Canoy would always say, “An informed citizenry will help strengthen our democratic life, but an uninformed citizenry will break our freedom.”