About this learning event

This course will offer recommendations concerning a coherent set of legal, institutional, and strategic policy prerequisites for making and implementing decisions about asset acquisition, use, and disposal. A particular emphasis will be placed on a holistic approach to the development of sound practical solutions. This holistic approach is based on, and in turn reinforces, capacity building within governments’ administrative bodies, as officials’ competence and motivation are essential for leading and achieving public sector transformation.

The course will be delivered as part of the 2022-24 Efficient Public Sector Asset Management (EPSAM) Program. The Program’s goals are to improve awareness and knowledge of public asset management as an integral part of public sector reforms and to create a network of professionals who can become a driving force in this process, in CEF’s constituency countries and beyond.

What will you learn

This online course will:

• Discuss public sector assets from a conceptual viewpoint as well as a valuation and reporting viewpoint.
• Discuss the challenge of financial reporting being decoupled from the actual management of state assets.
• Highlight the need for a clear regulatory framework and institutional accountability framework concerning public sector asset management.
• Discuss strategic policy prerequisites for making and implementing decisions about asset utilization.
• Outline how to establish an organizational system to manage government assets and deploy them for the achievement of government objectives.
• Discuss critical issues in the relationship between PSAM and government decentralization such as the distribution of powers, financial responsibilities, and property-related revenues and expenses across levels of government.
• Present significant country experiences (state of play, performance, conceptual and practical challenges in accounting for and managing assets).

The course will be composed of two Learning Units consisting of two Webinars, five in-webinar presentations and one video-recorded presentation, supplemental reading materials, and one short written assignment. The total workload is about 6 hours . Participants will be required to participate actively by sharing country experiences, contributing to the debates, and submitting one assignment.

The course will be delivered in English.

Target audience

The course targets public officials and experts responsible for managing public sector asset portfolios and engaged in the development, execution, or supervision of state asset management (reform) activities in their countries. More precisely, from CEF constituency countries, but also from countries facing similar challenges, our target audience includes:

• Senior officials (policy makers) at Ministry of Finance and other line ministries engaged in public-sector asset management.
• Public sector managers and directors engaged in asset management processes, in developing and maintaining asset records, and in managing asset portfolios.
• Public sector managers and directors engaged in the design and implementation of public sector accounting reforms.
• Representatives of Supreme Audit Institutions.
• Representatives of academia in the areas of public-sector management, accounting, and auditing.

Applications need to be submitted no later than March 10, 2023. Selected candidates will be informed before the beginning of the course.

Faculty

• Gorana Roje, Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets, Croatia; CEF Associate Fellow: Gorana has more than 15 years of experience in public sector accounting and public sector financial management. Her competencies are strategically located at the intersection between academia and top-level practice, and her work is focused on international and comparative public sector accounting and financial reporting, international public sector accounting standards setting and public sector financial management, with a particular emphasis on PSAM reforms domestically, regionally and worldwide. 
• Eugenio Anessi-Pessina, Full Professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy: Currently, Eugenio is full professor of Public Management at Università Cattolica. His work includes research, teaching, and expert support to public-sector institutions. He is also a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Board established to develop IPSAS-based accounting standards for the Italian public sector. 
• Nives Botica Redmayne, Associate Professor, Massey University School of Accountancy, New Zealand: Nives contributes to the development of professional standards, guidance and policies for practicing auditors and accountants in New Zealand by informing regulators, based on her research and expertise in financial reporting and auditing. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) and she is the CAANZ Vice President. 
• Ivan Dionisijev, Teaching and Research Assistant, St. Cyril and Methodius", Faculty of Economics in Skopje, North Macedonia: Ivan is a Teaching and Research Assistant at the Department of Accounting and Auditing at the University "St. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje, Faculty of Economics - Skopje. He has 6 years of work experience as a state auditor at the State Audit Office of the Republic of North Macedonia.
• David Benetly, CIPFA, United Kingdom: David is a professionally qualified quantity surveyor with over 35 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He is Head of Asset Management within the CIPFA group with overall responsibility for construction, asset management and highways related networks. 
• Yasemin Hurcan, IMF: Yasemin is IMF Fiscal Affair Department’s regional PFM advisor based at the CEF and provides capacity development (CD) support to the six Western Balkan countries.

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: