Tag Archives: #financetraining

WHAT BUDGET HOLDERS NEED TO KNOW

| March 12, 2026

Effective financial management, budgeting and control should underpin the operations of all public sector and nonprofit organisations. The reason being that they are responsible for public funds, and need to ensure value for money. In the current environment public sector budgets are being challenged to deliver more for less. This requires all those tasked with spending public funds to take ownership of their budgets and be accountable for their use. Many budget holders are skilled professionals in specific disciplines but may not have any knowledge or experience in being responsible for a budget. This increases the challenges faced in ensuring public funds are managed and controlled. Often training and development budgets face constraints which result in only “essential” training being funded and delivered. We consider that finance training should be in that category, but often it is not. There are many areas that we consider that anyone responsible for a budget at any level should be fully conversant with and form part of their underpinning knowledge. What Budget Holders Should

Robust Financial Management (RFM) for the Public Sector

| April 26, 2023

Robust Financial Management in the Public Sector (RFM) A necessity not a choice  What is robust financial management ? Firstly, we can define “robust” as follows: “Robustness is a characteristic describing a system’s ability to perform effectively while its variables or assumptions are altered. In general, a system is robust if it can handle variability and remain effective” (Investopedia) Public financial management refers to “the collection, management, and expenditure of public finances throughout an economy. The core objective of public financial management is to improve citizens’ lives through better management of public money.” (International Federation of Accounting) Combining these definitions, we can state that robust financial management in the public sector should be focusing on achieving the 4Es – Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness and Equity in the use of public funds. This is in line with New Public Management (NPM) theories. NPM seeks to improve public sector management generally, including increased flexibility and transparency. This can be a challenging objective when public funds are limited, and the demands are high. Therefore,