Gwangju Office of Education Achieves 98% Target Execution Rate for School Accounting

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 24th that it achieved a 98.1% execution rate of the school accounting budget for the 2020 academic year.

This result exceeded the previous target of 97%.

Additionally, the accuracy of revenue estimation rose by 0.2% from 99.7% the previous year to 99.9%, indicating an improvement in the efficiency and soundness of school accounting financial management.

In October last year, the Office of Education established a school accounting execution management plan and guided frontline schools to prevent low budget execution and significant unused funds caused by changes in the academic schedule due to COVID-19.

Schools converted six essential project budgets, including field trip expenses, into recommended projects through preliminary settlement and utilized these funds for COVID-19 response resources. They also returned the remaining balances of purpose-specific project funds, which accounted for a large portion of unused funds, minimizing the amount of unused budget.

In January, the Office of Education visited private schools expected to have excessive unused funds and provided customized consulting tailored to each school.

In particular, the Office actively promoted the execution of facility project purpose-specific funds, which constitute a large portion of carryover funds, resulting in an increase in the school accounting execution rate of private schools from 95.0% to 97.8%, a 2.8% rise.

The Office of Education plans to set a target execution rate of 98% for the 2021 academic year as well and will implement detailed plans including ▲ conducting mid-term budget execution checks (preliminary settlement) to encourage timely execution ▲ encouraging voluntary participation of schools through financial penalties and incentives ▲ thorough management, settlement, and return of purpose-specific project funds ▲ and providing field-centered customized consulting support.

An official from the Office of Education stated, “Due to the prolonged economic downturn caused by COVID-19, efficient and planned financial management is urgently required. We will enhance the efficiency and soundness of budget execution through proactive and preemptive financial management similar to the previous year.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.