| Abstract: | 近年來，私立學校（以下簡稱私校）不斷爆發財務問題，不僅影響教育目標之達成，亦引起社會大眾對私校的不信任。教育部認為，治本之道，在強化私校的內部控制，於是，修正私立學校法，並強制私校設置監察人（見民國九十年九月公布的修正草案），惟其後教育部的立場已由強制設置改為鼓勵設置。草案公布後，私校董事的反對聲浪不斷，但其他人則可能有不同的看法。本研究探討對監察人制度是否可降低私校發生財務問題的看法，以及不同人對上述問題的看法是否不同。
財務透明，是組織避免發生財務問題的一個方法，因此，本研究藉監察人制度是否影響私校財務透明的程度，而回答上述第一個問題。不同特色的監察人制度，功能亦不同，本研究從三個層面探討監察人制度的特色，包括：監察人的獨立性、其專業能力與監察人的規模；財務透明程度則著眼於資訊的可接近性，並從資訊揭露的管道、頻率及資訊的種類三個層面來衡量財務資訊的可接近性。
本研究根據監察人制度與私立學校財務資訊可接近性的關係，發展三個假說，探討私立學校監察人制度之建立，是否與財務資訊揭露的管道能公平對待每一位欲取得資訊之人有關、是否與財務資訊揭露之頻率有關，以及是否與所揭露財務資訊之種類有關。為瞭解不同人對監察人制度與私校財務透明程度間之關係的看法是否不同，本研究又探討與私校有關的人士是否因身份之不同而對上述關係有不同的看法。本研究係以問卷蒐集資料，在設計問卷前，本研究訪談北部某私立技術學院之校長，辨認與監察人制度各層面有關的十個問題。本研究共發出問卷811份，回收份數130份，有效問卷109份。
根據實證分析，本研究所獲致的結論，為：一、當監察人的獨立性及專業性程度較高，且規模較大時，私校財務透明的程度即較高；而監察人制度對揭露資訊的種類，影響不大，僅監察人之專業，性與「租賃或買賣校地」資訊之揭露有關。二、對上述關係的看法，董事長與校務行政人員及老師未有顯著不同，但校務行政中的校長及會計主任，則顯著不同。三、對監察人的獨立性，受試者的信心較不足，但對其專業能力，則未顯現信心或缺，由於對後者的重視程度較高，整體而言，對監察人制度仍持較正面的看法。綜上所述，設立監察人制度與私校財務透明程度的增加間呈正相關，應可成立。因此，私立學校應以更開放的心胸，去看待監察人制度，雖然它並不是解決私校問題的唯一方法，但它不失為一個值得嘗試的方法。
Financial irregularities of privately-fimded schools emerged one by one recently.These occurrences not only impact adversely on the achievement of educational goals but also lead to doubt on the worthiness of their existence. One way to solve such problem is to strengthen the effectiveness of internal controls. The Ministry of Education tries to amend the Private School Law and mandates the privately-funded schools to install an audit committee on the top of their board of directors in the bill in September, 2001. The attitude regarding the audit committee of the Ministry, however, has switched, from mandating to optional but encouraging.
Since the deliberation is first publicized, the board of directors who are under the supervision of several privately-funded schools oppose strongly, but others keeping silence may hold the opposite views. Therefore, this study investigates the general perceptions whether the installment of audit committee reduces the occurrences of financial irregularities and whether different people hold different views on the said question. Financial transparency is one way to avoid the financial difficulties. This study investigates if the new system affects the degree of financial transparency in privately-funded schools in responding the general perception question. Because function of audit committees is dependent on the members’independence and competence and size of the committee, this study investigates whether these features affect the degree of financial transparency. The financial transparency discussed focuses on the accessibility of financial information, and the measurement of accessibility, which are dependent in turn on the channel, the frequency, and the types of information disclosed.
This study develops three hypotheses based on the accessibility of financial information in privately-funded schools, and investigates whether the installment of such a system is correlated with the free access to, the frequency of the access of financial information, and types of information disclosed. Besides, this study also investigates whether people in different position (principals, accounting managers, chairman of the board, student`s parents, teachers, administrators of the Ministry of Education or external auditors) hold different views on the above relation.
This study uses questionnaires to collect perceptions of different people. This study identifies ten questions for various aspects of audit committee in privately-funded schools before the questionnaire is finalized by interviewing a principal responses one privately-funded college. This study sends 811 questionnaires and receives 130; 109 are usable and analyses are based on these responses.
The conclusions of this study are:
1. The more independent and more professional of the committee member and the larger of a committee is, the higher financial transparency a privately-funded school can achieve, but the committee influences little on types information disclosed, only the information of "leasing and trading land" impaction the committee member`s competence.
2. The views of the chairman of the board regarding the relation between the installment of audit committee and the degree of financial transparency are not different significantly with those of the administrative personnel and teachers in privately-funded schools, but principals and accounting managers held views different significantly.
3. The subjects lack confidence in audit committee member`s independence, but trust their competence. Because they weigh the competence heavier than the independence, they think positively on the system as a whole. |
