The financial machinery of government

Good financial management in the public sector requires managers to be multi skilled in the financial aspects of their roles. They need to understand the workings of their departmental financial management frameworks and how they link into Crown governance processes.

This programme has been designed to meet these needs. It fully explains the delegation of decision making and enacting powers, the role of accountability documents and monitoring and advisory agencies. The requirements of the Public Finance Act are covered with a particular focus on financial reporting, monitoring, budgeting and the critical timelines of the government budgeting cycle. This highly practical programme will equip you with management and financial tools that you'll be able to apply as soon as you return to work.

What our participants say:

'I enjoyed learning the deeper aspects of governance, annual reports, budgets and forecasts. It exceeded my expectations' - Pat Handcock, Area Commander, NZ Police.

Objectives:

After completing this course you will be able to:

Understand the role of parliament including appropriations, estimates and imprest supply
Understand the requirements of the Public Finance Act 1989 and other core public sector legislation
Understand key government priorities and the phases of the government budgeting cycle
Understand the role of monitoring and advisory agencies including Treasury and SSC
Identify accountability documents including SOI's and annual reports
Understand key finance principles and apply them in the public sector environment
Interpret statements of financial performance and statements of financial position
Apply the seven golden rules for public sector budget holding managers
Understand the workings of your department's/ agency's financial planning and reporting frameworks
Understand the authority required for variations and expense transfers
Apply techniques for preparing robust budgets and forecasts
Analyse and respond to monthly operating statements

Our training is:

Competency based: we enable participants to apply what they have learned when they return to work
Professionally designed to cater for all learning styles, with a mix of activities
Based on accelerated learning techniques to engage participants
Fully evaluated for continuous improvement
Customised for an organisation's specific needs and issues and financial systems and processes

Participant feedback from the financial machinery of government