About this course 

Are you about to face the annual budget battle?
Are this year’s decisions even more difficult than usual?
Help is now at hand!

Since 2011 this EIPA course has helped experienced finance professionals and service managers make better decisions for delivering services to citizens – and in 2020 we are again partnering with OECD’s Territorial Governance Department to do so.

We cover key financial/operational risks across the public financial management cycle – budgeting, budget execution, planning and delivery of services focusing on how to:

• Prepare public sector budgets and service plans in difficult times by making realistic choices about priorities and thus make best use of limited resources;
• Link budgets to service priorities;
• Use budgets as a tool to manage public services, including setting/using KPIs and when/how to deal with unfavourable outcomes.

We also cover stakeholder impact budgets (such as gender-based budgeting), the role of multi-annual budgets and the challenges in performance budgeting.

How will it help you?

By the end of the workshop you will:

• Better understand the role of budgeting in the public sector and why it matters;
• Be able to deal more effectively with the current challenges for budgeting and service planning for finance staff and service managers;
• Achieve better co-operation between finance staff and service managers to improve public service planning and delivery;
• Be able to identify/manage the most commonly arising financial and operational risks in budget preparation and planning for service delivery;
• Be able to identify/manage the commonly arising financial and operational risks in the budget execution of and service delivery;
• Better understand how auditors can help public sector bodies to improve their management of finances/services.

Course methodology

To help you to do so we will give you:

• Initial input with presentations on key issues on budgeting, financial management and operational service management and service planning;
• Examples/case studies to show you what happens in practice across the EU at national and sub-national level;
• Exercises to reinforce your understanding of the practical application of budgeting, financial management and operational service management and service planning;
• Adequate time to discuss with our experts and other participants issues arising in your situation.

Who will benefit most?

This workshop is for officials from European institutions/agencies, ministries, national executive agencies, regional governments, municipalities and other public sector bodies such as:

• Finance staff experienced in preparing budgets and financial management reports;
• Service managers who need to understand budgets, financial management reports and operational management reports to better plan and manage services;
• Auditors who can help public sector bodies improve how they control finances and manage services.

If you are a finance professional or service manager in the public sector, come and share experiences with your peers and learn from our experts to deal with the difficult challenges you are facing.

“The days of the politics of “and” are over – Budgeting is about making choices about what services to deliver to citizens and in what way”
Michael Burnett

Read Michael Burnett’s blog ‘Understanding the public sector financial management cycle’

Read Blog