INTERNAL CONTROL MEASURES ADOPTED BY PRINCIPALS FOR REGULATING FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN IMO STATE

The study investigated internal control measures adopted by principals for regulating financial mismanagement in public secondary schools in Imo State. Six research questions guided the study and six hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 790 respondents, made up of 395 principals and 395 bursars in the 395 public secondary schools in Imo State. Census or total sampling technique was used for the study, since the entire population of 790 respondents is relatively small and manageable. A researcher-developed instrument titled "Internal Control Measures for Regulating Financial Mismanagement Questionnaire (ICMRFMQ)" was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts who were lecturers, two from the Department of Educational Management and Policy and one from the Measurement and Evaluation Unit of the Department of Educational Foundations, all from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Using Cronbach's alpha for test of internal consistency, the coefficient values obtained for clusters I, II and III of the instrument were 0.83, 0.81 and 0.79, respectively, with an overall coefficient of 0.81. The researchers, together with four research assistants, collected data for the study using the direct approach method and a 98% return was recorded. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The results of the study showed, among others, that preventive and detective measures are adopted by principals for regulating financial mismanagement in public secondary schools in Imo State. Further results showed that there is a significant difference in the mean ratings of principals and bursars on all dimensions of internal control measures adopted by principals for regulating financial mismanagement in public secondary schools in Imo State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the Ministry of Education should recruit qualified personnel as internal auditors and post them to secondary schools to collaborate with principals in improving their detective measures through conducting auditing on a regular basis, such as quarterly or annually.