POSSIBLE FINANCIAL REPORTING CHALLENGES FACED BY GOVERNING BODIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Some of the South African school governing bodies (SGBs) are faced with various challenges including a lack of skills, corruption and the mismanagement of funds. These challenges make it difficult for the SGBs to discharge their duties. Section 43 of the South African Schools Act (SASA) requires the Members of the Executive Council (MECs) for Education in various provinces to develop financial guidelines for the schools. This results in the use of different accounting and reporting guidelines by governing bodies in various provinces, which may have a negative effect on the comparability and other desirable qualities, such as faithful representation, consistency and understandability of financial information. The research reported here was extracted from a literature review, which forms an integral part of a doctoral study. The study is still in progress and aims to establish the nature of reporting, the effectiveness of existing guidelines and the extent of non-compliance to regulations and existing guidelines by different schools in various provinces in order to develop guidelines to assist SGBs to prepare annual financial statements. The aim of this paper, however, is to discuss possible financial reporting challenges faced by South African SGBs of public schools. This is done by literature review.