Financial Management and Budgetary Control Short Court in Africa

Financial Management and Budgetary Control

The course is designed to deepen participants’ understanding of public sector financial management techniques. It strengthens skills and gives insight into financial management and effective budgetary control tools. It covers financial management; record keeping; budgeting; and budget planning, monitoring and control. The course provides the knowledge and skills to enable participants to successfully prepare, analyse, manage and control budgets effectively.

  • Senior Finance Officers
  • Financial Administrators
  • Financial Policy Analysts
  • Government Accountants
  • Economists
  • Economic Analysts and Policy Planners
  • Senior Managers in Government
  • Project managers, Coordinators and Officers

This course aims to help participants appreciate the importance of sound public sector financial management and budgetary controls and help them improve their reporting and delivery against budget.

By the end of the course, participants will:

  • Be equipped with skills to design ways to manage and control use of financial resources in the public sector
  • Be able to link the institutional budget to strategic and performance plans
  • Be able to develop effective expenditure monitoring mechanisms
  • Be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of various budgeting models
  • Be able to perform revenue, expenditure and budget analysis and forecasting
  • Be able to construct budgets utilising alternative budgeting, following policy guidelines
  • Introduction and conceptualisation of basics
  • Benefits of budgets and importance of good Financial Management
  • Principles of Financial Management
  • Financial Planning
  • Cash flow management
  • Financial planning and forecasting
  • Understanding financial statements
  • Financial risk analysis and management
  • Decision-making in financial management
  • Record keeping for improved financial information
  • Legal requirements for keeping records
  • Database management
  • Public Sector Accounting Standards
  • Improving public sector financial reporting
  • National standards
  • International standards
  • Characteristics of a good budget
  • Budget execution
  • Monitoring budget execution
  • Revenue and expenditure analysis
  • Budget forecasting
  • Budgeting Techniques
  • Budgeting methods and practices
  • Capital planning and budgeting
  • Operating budgeting models
  • Capital budgeting models
  • Budgetary reforms and budgeting systems
  • Budgetary Controls
  • Budget implementation and control
  • Managing and maintaining control of funds
  • Budgetary controls and responsibility centres
  • Performance Measures and Strategic Planning
  • Monitoring and evaluation of budget performance
  • Importance of monitoring and evaluation
  • Budgeting for improved performance
  • Planning and budgeting for capital improvements
  • Identification and collection of information for budgeting purposes
  • Budgeting and costing
  • Managing data for preparing a budget
  • Conclusions on Financial Management and Budgetary Control
  • Is there a single best method of financial management?

The training approach is highly interactive. It uses a mixture of presentations by the facilitator and by participant(s), group or individual exercises, use of case studies and role plays. These proven learning techniques enhance understanding and retention of covered issues.