Transferring Internal Control Knowledge from Legislation to School Management: The Case of Slovenia

The financial management of school principals in Slovenia is very high according to the Slovenian legislation. The school principal is usually accountable for setting the internal controls. The main thesis of paper says school management in Slovenia has no system developed to facilitate the transfer of internal control knowledge from legislation to school management. Internal controls are integral parts of financial management in schools. The most effective way of internal control in schools is risk management. The aim of the paper is to identify advantages and weaknesses in the area of internal controls and risk management in Slovenian schools. Experimental results indicate some advantages in school internal control and risk management. The school principals are aware the importance of the inventory check as one among the control mechanisms and they are wishing to acquire more knowledge of internal controls and risk management. There are some most common weaknesses in internal controls and risk management. For example school principals are not awared that internal control and risk management need to be treated as a necessary component of responsible school financial management. So they do not report in their financial plans and annual reports on internal controls and risk management. Based on research, the study reports on necessary contents of Risk Rules for internal controls and risk management as a tool for facilitating the transfer of internal control knowledge to school managers.