Public Financial Management Programs

a) Course Overview

This training course provides an overview of PFM systems, institutions, and capacity building in developing and emerging market economies. It focuses on PFM issues based on the IMF’s operational and analytical perspectives, in support of macroeconomic stability, economic growth, and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The training covers a wide range of topics and treats PFM as an integrated system rather than a collection of specialities. As such, it focuses on PFM priorities, reform objectives and implementation risks. The course is built on conceptual and practical approaches and includes testimonies from the ministry of finance, practitioners, and other stakeholders.

b) Target Audience:

All government officials are welcome to register. The course is particularly relevant for mid-to senior-level officials in ministries of finance, treasuries, debt management offices, ministries of economy, or financial planning divisions in line ministries. It is also targeted at officials involved in capacity-strengthening functions related to public financial management (PFM). The training is designed for participants who have already a basic understanding of PFM systems and builds on that knowledge at an intermediate level

c) Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand why PFM is an important tool to implement public policies.
• Describe and analyze the budget cycle, and its main components.
• Identify the linkages between the components of PFM systems and improved economic and fiscal performance.
• Evaluate a simple medium-term budget framework, a cash management plan, and a public investment management reform strategy.
• Recognize tools for effective management of fiscal risks, components of fiscal transparency, reliable fiscal reports, and internal and external audits.
• Identify issues relevant to the prioritization and sequencing of PFM reforms, and the challenges faced in implementing such reforms.
• Understand the role of local conditions and political institutions in designing and implementing reforms

d) Course Outline:

• Definitions, Objectives of PMF and its Context
• Introduction to the Budget Cycle
• The Budget & Budget Preparation Process
• Budget Classification
• Macroeconomics of the Budget
• Mid-term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Performance Budgeting
• MTEF and Other Special Issues
• Budget Execution
• Special Issues – Payroll, Procurement and IT
• Internal Control & Audit
• Revenue Administration
• Treasury Management
• Accounting and Reporting
• External Scrutiny and Oversight
• Measuring the Performance of PFM Systems

a) Introduction

Many managers and heads of departments are involved in the management of finances, but have no prior formal training in financial management, hence the need for this training to equip them with the necessary financial management skills and knowledge

b) Target Group

Officers in the public service sector, who handle financial responsibilities but have no formal training in finance

c) Learning Objectives

• Explain the sources from which Government/Organizations raised its finances
• Apply the financial management skills and knowledge acquired to make sound financial
• Prepare budgetary estimates and monitor implementation to ensure expenditure control
• Discuss the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) process
• Explain the government accounting system and controls inherent in that system
• Prepare financial statements and reports and interpret them for better decision-making
• Detect fraud and prevent its recurrence

d) Content Areas

• Sources for finances
• Financial management skills
• Budgeting
• The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) process
• Government accounting system and controls
• Supplies and procurements management
• Preparing financial statements and reports
• Fraud prevention and detection

e) Benefits of Attending

Organizations have staff who possess a good grasp of financial management, hence increasing efficiency in the control and management of finances in their organizations

a) Course Overview

With the rapid developments in accounting standards, regulations, and industry practices, individuals need continuous training in order to keep abreast of all the changes. They also need to improve the quality of financial reporting by recording, reporting and disclosing regular and unusual business transactions. ‘Financial Accounting and Reporting is a course prepared and facilitated by professionals who not only master the theoretical facts of academia but who also have solid and practical global experience.

b) Target Audience

Professionals in the field of finance and accounting, accountants at all levels seeking to enhance practical finance and accounting knowledge, and certified financial and accounting personnel

c) Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• List the basic financial statements and determine the best structure and presentation practices
• Recognize important periodical adjustments and their effect on financial statements
• Explain how to properly account for assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses during recurrent and non-recurrent transactions
• Identify minimum disclosure requirements in the financial statements for major accounts of transactions
• Prepare financial statements starting from the raw trial balance and ending with full comprehensive disclosures

d) Course Outline

• Framework of Accounting
• Definitions – Income, Expenditure, Capital, Assets and Liability
• Ledger accounts
• Double Entry Bookkeeping
• Trial Balance
• Financial statements and business decisions
• Income statement
• Balance sheet and statement of owners’ equity
• Cash Flow Statement
• Accounting adjustments
• Accrual Framework
• Bookkeeping in an IT Framework
• Financial reporting for major accounts and transactions

e) Target Competencies

• Mapping trial balance accounts to financial statements accounts
• Practising financial statements’ notes preparation
• Realizing minimum disclosure requirements
• Applying International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Using Excel and Pivot tables for reporting
• Understand the process of recording transactions – ledger accounts, debits and credits and be able to prepare ledger accounts, adjustments and closing balances.
• Understand the difference between balance sheet and income and expenditure accounts

a) Course Overview

This training skill provides the learner with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to understand and apply the principles and concepts of budgeting in the government sector

b) Target Group:

This skills programme is designed for the public sector and is aimed at:

• Individuals who are involved, or will be involved, in the budgeting process
• Practitioners in a range of government departments and public sector institutions at the national and provincial level
• Decision makers and advisors as well as senior managers and operational managers required to implement budgeting and financial management systems
• Department and organisation managers

c) Course Objectives

• Step-by-step processes to crafting a budget from the beginning
• What are the different types of budgeting?
• Understand the basic difference between a budget and a forecast
• Budgeting sales/funds and understanding how to plan the current year’s sales/funds
• Clearly understand the process of budgeting under varying scenarios such as budgeting for a new business, budgeting for payroll, cash budgeting, capital budgets, production and raw material budgeting and project management budgeting
• How does the budgeting for fixed expenses vary from budgeting for variable expenses
• Learn about monthly allocations.

d) Course Benefits

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Effectively apply government budgeting procedures and techniques
• Understanding of the detailed government budget cycle
• Expose to the different national treasury guidelines for budgeting
• Insight into the different budget formats and costing methodologies applied in government;
• Understand the nature, purpose, structure and major elements of a financial statement and a budget
• Use and apply all important and necessary budgeting terms and techniques
• Compile and interpret budgets, carry out analysis and gain experience in creating your department’s financial statements
• Learn that the budgeting process is not intuitive and understand the practical aspect of the process
• Prepare, monitor and control a budget.

e) Course Contents

1. Interpret Budgets within a Specific Sector

• Budgeting in the public sector
• Role and purpose of budgets in a specific sector according to legislation
• Principals of budgeting in terms of application
• Components of a budget within a specific sector as per legislation

2. Evaluate Budget Formats and Approaches to Budgeting

• Budgeting formats – Introduction
• Range of budget formats
• Budget costing approaches

3. Manage Data for Preparing a Budget

• Principles and goals of the fiscal framework
• Budgetary requirement
• Financial analysis of the fiscal framework
• Compile information for a budget utilizing policy, strategic and performance plans
• Importance of monitoring and evaluation
• Medium-term expenditure guidelines

4. Estimate Budget Using Prescribed Formats

• Annual budget according to appropriate approaches and prescribed formats
• Cash flow estimation

5. Prepare Motivation for Budgetary Requests

• Motivation for budgetary request
• Standard Chart of Accounts (SCA)
• Eight segments of SCA
• Item segment classification of revenue (receipts)
• Item segment classification of expenditure (payments)

6. Prepare Budget Based on Approved Amounts

• Budget request to role players
• Basic steps required to finalize the budget allocation
• Prepared and finalize budgets in accordance with organisation practices and principles

a) Course Overview

Fraud has become a serious concern for the both commercial and non-profit organizations across the whole world. According to a study by researchers, a wide range of all non-profit organizations/groups fails victim to occupational fraud. Awareness about fraud and embedding anti-fraud procedures in the system of an organization can have a significant impact on the sustainability of the organization in the long term. This training course will help the trainees to learn why people commit fraud, how to identify fraud risks, establish an anti-fraud culture and ensure fraud awareness in the organization. This training course will explain how to build a robust fraud risk management program and how to integrate anti-fraud initiatives into the fraud risk management program.

b) Target Group

• Law enforcement agents, internal auditors, treasurers, accountants and fund managers in all sectors of the economy.
• Internal auditors in organisations without a dedicated fraud team
• Auditors who need to learn about the most modern approaches to fraud prevention and investigation
• Newly appointed fraud specialists
• Members of fraud teams who need to learn more about targeting internal fraud
• Managers need a broader understanding of how to prevent and detect fraud

c) Learning Objectives

After completing this training course, you will be able to:

• Evaluate and challenge management’s fraud risks
• Understand how a fraudster thinks
• Apply successful techniques to help prevent fraud
• Promote an effective fraud prevention process
• Adopt data mining as a fraud prevention and detection tool
• Apply an effective fraud investigation process
• Apply audit skills to fraud investigation
• Spot when someone is not telling you the truth

d) Course Outline

• Fraud in the global context
• Fraud and its impact on corporate reputation
• Whistleblower programmes and fraud prevention
• Fraud typologies and Common Types of Fraud
• Information and security threats
• Ethics and fraud control
• Regulatory response to fraud
• Statistical Overview of Fraud Problem
• Who Commits Fraud?
• Fraud Risk Program – Components
• Fraud Risk Assessment – Components
• Conducting Fraud Risk Assessment – Case Studies
• Case Studies – A Practical Perspective
• Fraud Prevention Program
• Fraud Prevention Checklist – A Practical Perspective
• Fraud Detection Program
• Fraud Prevention and Detection Score Cards
• Fraud Investigation Program

a) Course Overview

It is essential for every organization to effectively utilize its funds and manage its exposure to key risks arising from fluctuations in interest rates and foreign exchange rates. The certificate in treasury and cash management course examines the important roles of the corporate treasury in managing cash flow and liquidity, working capital, accessing debt financing and managing capital. This course provides professionals with a sound understanding of the tools and techniques required for effectively managing the various aspects of treasury risk.

b) Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Describe and explain the roles of corporate treasury management and the treasury function
• Apply up-to-date practices covering asset liability management and cash management techniques
• Develop a practical understanding of financial markets and their products
• Recognize and correctly measure financial instruments under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Describe fair value measurement and explain its effect on financial instruments’ presentation
• Explain hedging and speculation, and distinguish between the different hedging techniques applied by the treasury function

c) Target Audience

Treasury professionals, financial professionals, finance managers, corporate controllers, financial controllers, chief accountants, accounting managers, senior accountants, banking professionals, back-office managers, traders and dealers, finance regulators and corporate business professionals.

d) Target Competencies

• Treasury management
• Cash management
• Risk analysis
• Risk management
• Equity valuation
• Fixed income valuation
• Hedging
• Accounting for financial instruments

e) Course Outline

• Introduction to the treasury function
• Cash and liquidity management
• Corporate finance theory
• Fixed income securities and bonds’ valuations
• Stock market and equity valuations
• Accounting for investments: recognition, impairment and hedge accounting ​
• Briefing on derivatives markets, hedging and speculation

a) Overview

In this training, you will learn the concepts of traditional and operational auditing and gain proven tools and techniques for performing effective audits.

You will gain a solid background in the basics of documenting and evaluating internal control/fieldwork techniques. Using specifically formulated case exercises, you will examine the critical elements of internal auditing: assessing risk, flowcharting, designing flexibility into the audit program, performing the audit and applying audit results to solve business problems.

You also will focus on and put into practice the communications skills associated with internal auditing: conferencing with customers, writing audit findings, and selling audit recommendations.

b) Target Groups

• Audit Managers
• Risk Managers
• Compliance Officers
• Operational Risk Managers
• Internal Control
• Middle-Level Management
• Managers and Officers involved in the process of Governance Departments
• CFOs

c) Duration

• 1 Week

a) Overview

PPP projects are very complex with large financial outputs and consequences. The projects include infrastructure, power generation, and utilities all of which should be implemented efficiently and in a sustainable manner. Hence these projects involve major challenges which need to be overcome to deliver a successful project. The success or failure of a project will depend on many factors and the study of case studies included in this training will help guide participants on the dos and don’ts of successful PPP project delivery and implementation.

This training course will identify the underlying best practices that can be applied in most countries, be they in emerging markets or developing economies, always recognizing the local conditions. The use of a range of case studies and examples will help illustrate both successful and less successful practices. Further, it will help illustrate what parties have learnt through experience and how PPPs have evolved in this process.

Good project preparation is fundamental to a successful PPP project. The concept of PPP obligates a more collaborative relationship between both sectors, fostered by openness and trust. This presents a major shift from the traditional arms-length approach in procuring services and executing projects. Well-designed, feasible projects attract greater interest amongst potential investors and demonstrate the potential benefits of taking the project forward to the procurement phase. Therefore, PPP projects critically require specially trained personnel who possess a deep understanding of the many different constraints involved and who display extensive knowledge of how to prepare and commence a PPP project.

b) Target Group

• Policymakers & senior government personnel
• Legal Advisors & Financial Advisors
• Director and senior management from private infrastructure/public utility sectors – Sectors include energy & electricity, water & wastewater, transportation (roads, airports, ports, and rail), telecommunications, education, health, and municipal services
• Senior Non-Government Organisation (NGO) officers

c) Duration

• 2 Weeks