30:30:40 TFF Funds Allocation Needed Clarity from 3 Key Stakeholders

This post revisits the joint ministerial statement by the, then, Education Minister and Education Secretary in 2016 regarding the Tuition Fee Free policy statement. The statement clearly showed the 30:30:40 breakdown of TFF grants. This post also highlights the key stakeholders of the policy.

Here is the 2016 joint press release and summerised in diagram below..

First, the Top 6 schools in the country that received the highest funds in 2018 as published by the NDoE in January 2019 are:

1. GOROKA SECONDARY SCHOOL (EHP) K3,466,199.43
2. ASAROKA LUTHERAN SEC. SCHOOL (EHP) K3,080,114.77
3. KAINANTU TECHNICAL SEC. SCHOOL (EHP) K2,728,983.53
4. KIAP NANO MEMORIAL SEC. SCHOOL (WHP) K2,657,222.77
5. DREGERHAFEN SECONDARY SCHOOL (MOROBE) K2,233,444.85
6. GEREHU SECONDARY SCHOOL (NCD) K2,208,447.28

You can see how much money your school or province receive here. The list was originally published by National Department of Education  (NDoE) on itswebsite in pdf form. 

PNG Insight rearranges the list of TFF-receiving schools in tabular form. This makes it easier to identify a particular school. Or, you can group school into a province, and identify how much  money each school is receiving in 2018.

Perhaps it is important to note that TFF grants given to schools in 2012 - 2017 are not available in the public domain, except the 2018 shown here.

School Learning Materials - 30% of TFF Grant

The Students' Supplies component of 30% is, also, an area needing clarity. The financial reports for the last 7 years for this component was not clearly reported on, or made available to public.

A private company has been allocated the money to procure and supply students learning materials. In fact, a dual secretarial and ministerial media statement in 2016 indicated that 30% of the TFF grant was allocated to Procurement and Supplies yearly. That is 30% of >K600 million every year in the hands of the private company.

So, has the procurement and distribution company delivered quality learning materials to schools? 

This year over K79 million was released to the private company to deliver materials for 2019. It is nearly half a year, but many schools have been waiting to receive the learning materials, unfortunately.

MPs PSIP and DSIP - 30% of TFF grant 

All schools in every district - elementary, primary and secondary - must receive help from their local MPs through the District Service Improvement Program funds released to the MPs. 

School infrastructure developments plans done by the school board, and captured in the school development plans or SLIPs, must be funded by the district grants.

Additionally, provincial governments through the provincial treasury must actively fund the development of school infrastructure in the country.

Why is there little-to-nothing to show for in the elementary, primary, high and secondary schools in the country?

Questions should be raised as to where the MPs have put the DSIP/PSIP grants meant for education and school infrastructure development, had the funds not reached the districts, schools and people.

Cash Grant for schools - 40% of TFF allocation

As mentioned earlier, 60% of TFF grants are in the hands of this private company and MPs - a lot of money. The NDoE deals with the 40% cash grant into school accounts, directly.

All in all, the ministerial statement 2016 clearly gave the break-down of the TFF grant into 30:30:40 components. Money meant for TFF policy are managed by the private  co, MPs and NDoE.

What is completely missing is transparency shown by the key stakeholders ( private company, NDoE and MPs) in the delivery of TFF policy.

The stakeholders will admit that there were obvious problems with TFF policy. Since 2012, TFF funds marked in the budgetary allocations have been more than the actual figures released. TFF grants were released to schools late.

The 3 key stakeholders have problems getting TFF monies on time.

But, regardless of the late disbursements monies and school supplies, in many cases,  the people MUST know over K600 million of TFF money have been disbursed to schools, the private company and MPs yearly.

Therefore, every stakeholder must demand that financial and transaction reports are produced promptly.

It is common knowledge that there is a complete lack on transparency on reporting, or the accounts do not balance out, IF no financial balance sheet is published to date.

This surmounts to a failure in the way the policy is implemented. Furthermore, when the books do not balance, there is something seriously wrong. And needed fixing.

There are whispers in the education corridors that the 30:30:40 components had been readjusted in 2018. However, there is no media statement or published document from the NDoE to confirm that the adjustment.

If that happened, it is canny that stakeholders did *not* know about the recent TFF component adjustment.

And, what is the new break-down?

Read more about the recommendations of a TFF policy research here.

• The private company releases the financial report of procurement and supply of students learning materials,
• The MPs have clearly identified how much they spent on school infrastructure development in their districts, and
• The NDoE publishes the TFF grant yearly report for 2012 - 2017. Note that the 2018 TFF report was published early this year, 2019.

Finally, the TFF policy is a cornerstone policy for the PNG goverment and for the country. The policy needs fine-tuning. 

PNG is better placed, at present, to deliver a better tuition fee (EDUCATION FEE) policy given its experiences in the last 8 years.