A BODY that rejected hundreds of school financial plans for failing to show they could stay in the black, overspent its budget by almost £20 million.
The Education Authority (EA) finished the last year with a £19.1m deficit, an audit report found.
Kieran Donnelly, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, said he was "disappointed".
The debts would have been greater had extra money not been allocated in the middle of the year.
While the overspend is a tiny fraction of the EA's annual £1.5 billion allocation - it still means less money for essential services including meals, maintenance and transport.
Overall, schools are struggling to tighten their belts because millions of pounds have been taken out of the system.
Head teachers have warned that they have been plunged into a financial crisis after having their spending plans rejected. The EA refused to authorise budgets for 632 schools after they were unable to show how they could live within their means.
Mr Donnelly's latest report now reveals that the EA itself spent more money than allocated in 2016/17.
The EA's two sponsoring departments - the Department of Education and the Department for the Economy - set annual budgetary limits which should not be exceeded without prior approval.
Mr Donnelly found that the EA was not formally informed of its budget until March 23 2016, six working days before the start of the financial year.
"EA did not agree how the budget would be managed including the savings to be achieved until August 2016, that is five months after the commencement of the year," his report found.
"EA sought and was allocated additional funding during 2016/17. EA's total budget allocation for 2016/17 was £1,543.4 million. However, EA's total expenditure was £1,562.5 million, resulting in an overspend of £19.1 million."
The Department of Education advised that the main causes were higher than planned spend on schools' delegated budgets (£7.8m), special education needs (£6.8m), and school maintenance (£3.9m).
"I am disappointed that the EA overspent by £19.1m," Mr Donnelly said.
"I am concerned that it took the EA almost five months to agree a strategy which would balance its 2016/17 budget; and had additional funds not been allocated in-year by DE, the overspend would have been significantly higher.
"I will keep this area under review, looking to see what lessons have been learnt and how the EA has strengthened its financial management."
The head of the EA has previously warned that the education system is facing a funding gap of £350m.
Chief executive Gavin Boyd told principals that the EA would need £2.19bn by 2019/20 to meet demand from schools.
