Compliance without performance: Financial management practices and systemic constraints in public secondary schools in Lusaka District, Zambia

Resumo

Financial management is central to accountability, transparency and efficient use of resources in decentralised education systems. However, public secondary schools may comply with budgeting, reporting and audit procedures without necessarily achieving financial management effectiveness. This study investigated financial management practices and barriers affecting their implementation in public secondary schools in Lusaka District, Zambia. Specifically, it examined the financial management practices used by school financial actors, analysed implementation barriers, and developed a policy-oriented framework for improving practice. The study adopted a quantitative-dominant concurrent mixed-methods design. The target population comprised head teachers, deputy head teachers, heads of department, bursars/accounts officers and other school-level actors involved in financial processes. Seventy-five questionnaires were administered using random sampling among eligible school-level respondents, of which 70 were returned and analysed, giving a 93.3% response rate. In addition, 39 interview participants were purposively selected because of their direct involvement in budgeting, procurement, reporting and oversight. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and binary logistic regression, while qualitative data were analysed thematically. The findings show that budgeting was the most reported practice (44.3%), followed by fund allocation (27.1%), financial reporting (17.1%) and auditing (11.4%). Although 81.4% of respondents perceived financial management practices as effective, interview evidence showed that effectiveness was commonly understood as procedural compliance rather than value for money or improved institutional performance. Delayed fund disbursement was the leading barrier (55.7%), followed by misallocation of funds (20.0%) and inadequate oversight (15.7%). Logistic regression showed that financial management training (p = 0.025; OR = 3.37) and auditing practices (p = 0.038; OR = 2.81) were positively associated with perceived effectiveness, while delayed funding was negatively associated with perceived effectiveness (p = 0.015; OR = 0.23). The study concludes that financial management challenges are governance-related and arise from the interaction of resource flows, accountability mechanisms and school-level practices. It recommends predictable funding, strengthened internal controls, routine auditing, contextualised training and performance-oriented accountability.