Financial Management and Control Beyond Ministries of Finance (2nd Webinar)

Sep 26, 2017 , Ljubljana, Slovenia Webinar

Auditing

English

Despite tangible gains in setting up the legislative frameworks for public internal control (PIC) in many SEE countries, there are difficulties with the materialization of the expected benefits of improved financial management and control (FMC). Current reform efforts in many countries remain largely technical, rather than managerial and FMC-related interventions are frequently made in isolation from broader budgetary and public administration reforms. Moreover, the ownership over the reform process between the MoF and the line ministries remains blurred.

This webinar was part of FMC webinar series and represented the second of three interlinked webinars. Recording of the first webinar is available here.

Second FMC webinar topics

The second webinar built upon the strategic consideration for implementing public internal financial control (PIFC) reforms in SEE explored in June. As budgetary and accounting reforms evolve in parallel, new requirements are imposed on service delivery managers and finance officers. FMC, aligned with international standards and best practice, is a significant enabling factor for their success. We explored a frequent misconception about FMC as a technical reform reserved for MoFs and finance departments, rather than a managerial reform affecting institutions and functions across the public sector. The second webinar on FMC in line ministries accordingly dealt with the management side of PIFC, explored the linkages of FMC and other public finance management reforms, and how countries can leverage the effects of multiple reforms on their way of introducing and strengthening of FMC.

The second FMC webinar explored the topics of:

Is there a need to separate policy development and strategic planning from day to day operational management?
Who are the managers and are present management structures compatible with FMC?
What are the responsibilities of managers with the introduction of FMC and the training they will require?
What are the changes required to budgetary and accounting systems with the introduction of FMC?

Agenda of the second webinar

Kaja Jurtela and Nihad Nakaš, CEF: Introductions

Noel Hepworth, Independent Public Policy Professional: The management side of FMC

Davor Kozina, Central Harmonization Unit (Croatia): Perspective of the MoF

Ivica Bošnjak, Zvjezdana Kvestić, Vjeran Štublin, Zagreb County (Croatia): Example of management in practice

Q&A

Who was it for

Senior and operational staff in ministries of finance (Central Harmonization Unit, budget department, treasury department)
Senior and operational staff in central government line ministries (secretaries, officials responsible for public service delivery: e.g. police services, defense, health, education, etc., heads of finance departments, heads of internal audit departments)
Senior public officials responsible for design/implementation/monitoring of Public Administration Reform strategy, Public Finance Management reform strategy, and/or Public Internal Financial Control strategy