SPB Newsfeed: Join our Online Discussions on Budget Execution

We are launching a new e-learning course on budget execution. This will be the second one in a series of our newly designed online learning solutions. These are aimed at bringing together public financial officials in South East Europe to learn in a digitalized environment using a variety of online applications. We will discuss good practice in budget execution and recent developments in treasury and cash management. To this end, we will provide a platform to find out how peers in the region have been coping with reforming their budget execution systems.

The e-learning course will last three weeks and will be structured around two core units. In Unit 1 we will see how budget execution processes are linked with budget formulation, review the stages of the expenditure cycle, discuss the responsibilities of different government organizations involved in budget execution, and look in detail into preconditions for successful budget execution. We will also address typical problems that arise during the execution process, including new spending requirements, and changes in the macroeconomic environment.

The second unit will focus on the key elements of a usable chart of accounts. We will address the relationship between the chart of accounts and the government’s general ledger with the budget classification system, and how to establish a sound framework of policies and procedures for the budget execution process. The unit will cover also the treasury function as one of the key fiscal institutions of the government’s public financial management system. We will end the unit with the role of good cash management in ensuring that funds are available when needed and that interest earnings on excess funds are maximized.

When designing the online learning initiative we paid special attention to the course design and interactivity. “As we move our courses to the online environment, it is important that we provide the same interactivity and practicality of our courses as in our workshop settings. It is something that we are known for in the region, so our aim was to design an e-learning course that would facilitate peer-to-peer learning and regional knowledge sharing. The final learning product is our way of combining expert-based learning with collaborative learning features. Online learning solutions provide enormous opportunities for public officials to engage in the content in a variety of ways. We hope that participants will learn and have fun when jointly discussing some of the main challenges in reforming budget execution processes in the region,” explained Urška Zrinski, CEF Program Manager, who is leading the course design.

The course is scheduled for June 15–July 5, 2015, and will be delivered as part of the CEF managed and European Union funded Strategic Planning and Budgeting project.