ICGFM Promotes Knowledge Transfer Among Public Financial Management Experts

Working globally with governments, organizations, and individuals, the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management is dedicated to improving financial management by providing opportunities for professional development and information exchange.

Showing posts with label "financial crisis" Grant Thornton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label "financial crisis" Grant Thornton. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

ICGFM Sustaining Members Publish: Embracing Government 2.0

Embracing Government 2.0: Leading transformation change in the public sector
Grant Thornton and FreeBalance White Paper

This white paper is co-authored by Government 2.0 thought leaders Martha Batorski, Director at Grant Thornton, and Doug Hadden, Vice President of Products at FreeBalance. "Government 2.0 is driving transformation in transparency, participation and collaboration," said Doug Hadden, Vice President of Products at FreeBalance. "Our vision is that knowledge management and collaboration are integral to Government Resource Planning."
The FreeBalance Grant Thornton paper was encapsulates the essence of a series of articles from the FreeBalance Sustainable Public Financial Management blog to respond to a growing demand among Grant Thornton clients for greater clarity on what leaders need to do different to successfully transition to Government 2.0. Articles about Government 2.0 received substantial interest and attention from social enterprises and the broader public financial management community. The white paper shows how to employ effective change management skills in the emerging Government 2.0 open environment and describes the new skills and mindsets government leaders need to adopt to address and the many, emerging new challenges they face.

Embracing Government 2.0 Leading Trans Formative Change in the Public Sector

Martha Batorski has over 20 years experience leading business transformation initiatives in the public and private sector. She is currently leading Grant Thornton’s Government 2.0 and Change Management 2.0 practice in the Global Public Sector. And, she was a recent speaker at the Potomac Forum February 2009 Conference on "Planning and Implementing Social Media and Open Government Strategy and Efforts: What Executives and Managers Need to Know " in Washington DC.

Martha Batorski writes about a key difference in leading change in the Government 2.0 era. “Traditional change management frameworks work for a mandated, roll-out of change – where change is pushed to a target audience. Change Management in the Web 2.0 era (Change 2.0) is more peer-to-peer, viral – change is pulled by participants, constituents, employees, customers. One key difference for leaders is in the need to engage with others, to convert value from the network into meaningful products and services and knowledge, and to quickly identify practical solutions to challenges.”

Doug Hadden has over 20 years of management, sales, marketing and product management experience. He has been instrumental in creating a vision for GRP software that incorporates Web 2.0 collaboration and content. Recently, Mr. Hadden hosted an interactive session detailing how Government 2.0 will transform the practice of government performance and public financial management. And he participated on the "Government 2.0: The Next Wave of Open Government?" panel at the ICGFM Winter 2009 conference.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Government Performance is a Journey, not a Destination

Poetic, but true, admitted, David Nummy, in his summing up of the ICGFM Winter Conference, Impact in Managing Public Finance. The conference co-chair concluded that government performance is about continuous improvement.

Public finance professionals from over 30 countries presented case studies, discussed trends and participated in workshops to share best practices about government performance, results and outcomes at the Enrique Iglesias Conference Center of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Mr. Nummy, of Grant Thornton, described the increasing interest in performance frameworks in governments around the world. He concluded that government performance management is different among countries. The country context is important when designing performance frameworks. The process of moving from traditional budgeting to performance budgeting ranges between 4 and 8 years based on the experiences of the countries at the conference. The discipline and knowledge of government performance management is maturing. Performance frameworks have become an integral part of public financial management reform.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Progress in Public Financial Management Reform

Lack of Trained Professionals Greatest Obstacle to Reform
Liela Aridi Afas and Steve Clyburn from Grant Thonton presented the results of the 2009 ICGFM Survey of Global Financial Management Leaders. This study was recently completed and published. The survey found that the top reason for implementing Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms is to increase transparency.

An informal conference poll was compared to the survey:

Reason for Reform ----------------------------------Survey --Poll
Increase transparency of government &
involvement/participation of citizens ------------------41 -------13
Improve effectiveness of budget expenditures --------29 -------40
Improve accountability to government &
business stakeholders --------------------------------20 -------23
Meet donor community requirements ----------------10 ------ 23

Recommendations were provided to help overcome obstacles to PFM reform. The lack of trained professionals was cited as the greatest barrier to PFM reform. The ICGFM Survey found that technical assistance is the most important resource needed for reform to succeed. Mr. Clyburn pointed out that the challenges faced by public finance managers around the world are similar. Many of the challenges are faced in developed and developing countries.

Top Resources Required -----------------------------Survey --Poll
Technical Assistance ---------------------------------70 -------- 33
Legal Frameworks -----------------------------------17 -------- 30
Automated FMIS -------------------------------------9 -------- 24
Funding ----------------------------------------------4 -------- 12


Many countries lack human capacity and the infrastructure for training, according to Mr. Clyburn. And, the public financial profession is trying to catch up with technology and change.
A poll of participants found that 69% believed that the financial crisis has had an influence on PFM reform. Ms. Afas pointed out that many financial managers thought that the financial crisis has exposed inefficiencies in PFM systems. Transparency is a major theme in the survey.



2010 Grant Thornton ICGFM Progress in Public Financial Management Reform



2010 Grant Thornton ICGFM Avancées réalisées dans la réforme de la gestion des finances publiques