Helping public sector managers get value for money from their budgets
A blog about public financial management: the fine art of managing public money to deliver vital services to the public. It involves budgeting, accounting, controlling, auditing, reporting, policy-making and decision-taking.
As part of the promotion of the upcoming third edition of Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector, I wrote a list of five books about how governments collect and spend your taxes. Check it out at https://shepherd.com/best-books/how-governments-collect-and-spend-your-taxes
Read MoreGrammarly is a major improvement on the grammar checker built into your word processor because it works on writing everywhere. You can check emails, text messages, Facebook and LinkedIn posts, etc.
Read MoreI wrote a short e-book that explains the principles of public procurement by using the hiring of a consultant as an example. The book will take less than an hour to read and yet it includes an explanation of the key steps in the process and has links to additional resources to help with writing your specification (get this wrong and the chances of things going wrong increases dramatically) and managing suppliers.
Read MoreWhen it comes to writing financial reports I encourage you to adopt a plain, direct style. If you do not then, at best, your reports will be over-written and, at worst, you will obfuscate the message you are trying to communicate. (I suppose I should, on that basis, permit over-writing if your intention is to obfuscate!)
Read MoreGood design helps people to use products and this applies to spreadsheets and financial models as much as it does to smartphones and websites. When you create a spreadsheet you should consider how it is formatted as part of its overall design. I have made a short video with three tips for formatting your spreadsheets to ensure they are useable.
Read MoreThe IMF (International Monetary Fund) have created an 8-weeks long course about public financial management. It is free, and available to you whether you work in a government agency, an NGO or are just interested in public money and budget transparency.
They have produced a 2-minute introductory video.
And you can sign up for the course here if you are a government official or work for a development agency and here if you are a member of the public. I think I will sign up because we can all learn something new however much of an expert we think we are.
© Gary Bandy 2024
