Sustainable Public Financial Management

Background

FreeBalance completed a survey at the Government Technology Exhibition and Conference (GTEC), November 5 to 8 2012 and the Financial Management Institute of Canada (FMI) Professional Development Week, November 27 to 30 2012.Both of these conferences were held in Ottawa.

FreeBalance is based in Ottawa and has been a supplier to the Government of Canada since 1984. FreeBalance is a specialist vendor in Public Financial Management with enterprise-class Government Resource Planning (GRP) implementations in governments around the world. This includes some countries where FreeBalance software runs all transactions at the federal level of government and some countries where FreeBalance software runs all government transactions at every level of government. We do not consider FreeBalance to be an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendor because FreeBalance does not provide solutions outside of government.

Survey Results

There were 207 respondents to the survey held at FreeBalance exhibits. The majority ofthe respondents were public servants in the Government of Canada. More than half ofthe respondents have had hands-on experience with FreeBalance and ERP software.

Technology Country of Origin

The majority of respondents believe that the Government of Canada should favour the acquisition of technology from Canadian companies or select the best solution regardless of country of origin.

Analysis

• No one selected “foreign large technology” as a option
• Survey results from public servants significantly contradicts government policy
• FreeBalance has been highly successful winning GRP contracts in competitive situations against the largest ERP companies, and, therefore, requires only a “level playing field” in Canada

Technology Procurement

The vast majority of respondents believes that any Government of Canada technology procurement made in the 1990s should be re-evaluated.

Analysis

• Survey results from public servants significantly contradicts government policy
• Use of legacy procurement decisions from around 15 years ago adds significant risk to enable the Government of Canada to achieve “value for money” in the procurement and maintenance of financial management systems
• There have been numerous changes in technology platforms in use in financial management systems since the mid 1990s when very few systems were even web-enabled
• It should be noted that, in the most recent versions for financial management software in use by the Government of Canada, only FreeBalance provides a pure web solution

• 1980-2000: The era of Mainframe and Personal Computer – based financial management software
• 1985-2005: The era of Client/Server software operating with different “fat” clients connected to PC and mini-computer servers
• 1995-2015: The era of Hybrid Web through the use of client/server base software that is web-enabled through translation layers and plug-ins or operate a fat clients via web protocols
• 2005-2020: The era of Pure Web financial management software using web infrastructures to support Cloud Computing and Shared Services without the architectural limitations of Client/Server infrastructures

How does the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for FreeBalance compare to Leading ERP Vendors?

Over 70% of respondents believe that FreeBalance software has a much lower TCO in government financial management than ERP. Almost 70% suggested that the FreeBalance TCO was between 10 and 50%.

Analysis:

• TCO is a critical calculation to determining the “value for money” in government procurement
• Software with the lowest TCO that is compliant to government needs will reduce costs
• The software license and maintenance costs represent an insignificant factor in TCO when compared to equipment, training, staff retention, software changes and version upgrades
• The assessment of public servants on TCO is similar to our analysis of quoted prices in international bids (where bid prices are publicized) that shows that the average FreeBalance turnkey price is almost, on average, half major ERP vendor prices

How Should FreeBalance react to ERP Government Failures

Two out of every three respondents recommends that FreeBalance publicize failures of ERP software in government. Over 85%  of respondents with an opinion recommended that FreeBalance publicize ERP failure in government.

Analysis

• There are numerous ERP failures, cost overruns, late deliverables and inability to achieve planned benefits in government
• A disturbing number of these ERP failures have become public
• In the interests of transparency, FreeBalance will continue to publicize ERP failures in government and provide analysis

Doug Hadden, VP Products

There is an interesting rant about the implementation of the leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for the Government of Zambia. The article alleges corruption in the implementation of this Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). The author doesn’t mince words. And, there have been corruption allegations in the past.

Frankly, I have no idea whether any of these allegations are true.

Recurrent Pattern: Leading ERP Software in Government – over budget and late

Over-budget ERP projects in government are regular occurrences. With no corruption.

The original budget for the project was $24M. The actual cost is estimated to be over $42M. That’s why we think that governments should select the low risk solution: Government Resource Planning (GRP), like the FreeBalance Accountability Suite.

A report a few years ago, but no longer available on the web, had some of the following all to familiar conclusions on the implementation:

• the complexity of the system, structure and vocabulary alienates and further hampers participation
• concern has been that the system itself might be too advanced and complex
• will become underutilized and that the costs involved won’t pay off
• concerns that budget experts of the consultant implementing the system may not fully have understood the procedures in place

There are numerous sources concluding that the roll-out has been slow. Another source reports that the new public accounting system IFMIS is one of the sub-components that show the slowest progress – it is about two years behind schedule. Another report identified the impact of the  IFMIS implementation on governance in Zambia.

Where do these costs come from?

The report from a few years had the following breakdown:

The total services costs (consultancy, training and maintenance) was estimated to be 4 times the cost for software licenses. It seems likely that the addition $20M is primarily services related. It might be fair to conclude that the total licenses cost is somewhere around $3.5M and services in the $25M range. That’s because ERP software requires significant amounts of customization, business process management and training. Especially in government.

That’s why government organizations must examine the true Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to understand the real cost impacts.

Lessons for More Developed Countries

I’m currently at the Financial Management Institute of Canada, Professional Development Week – Focus on Value this week. (Follow tweets using #pdweek). I’ve had the opportunity to talk to numerous government financials professionals, mostly at the federal government level in Canada. My somewhat frightening conclusion is that procurement specialization in the Government of Canada obscures the true TCO because the following are all acquired separately:

• Financial management software
• Database and middleware software
• Computer hardware
• Professional services
• Training and certification

Because of budget constraints, many finance professionals I have spoken to have serious concerns about the financial sustainability of ERP software in the Government of Canada. That’s a wake up call.

Consider this: the most financially secure developed country government is unable to handle these costs. Specifically, the very same ERP software that is being implemented in Zambia?

There are almost 5,000 attendees at PDWeek. It’s the premier government financial management conference in Canada.

Where is this ERP vendor? Not at the conference.

Quoi de neuf à FreeBalance?

Ces dernières nouvelles hebdomadaires apportent à la communauté de la planification des ressources gouvernementales (GRP) une brève vue générale des récents développements de FreeBalance et des nouvelles pertinentes de l’industrie.

FreeBalance en partenariat avec le CIPFA pour proposer une formation en GFP internationale

FreeBalance a annoncé une nouvelle alliance avec le Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) qui permettra de renforcer la gestion des finances publiques (GFP) dans les pays clients de FreeBalance. FreeBalance sera chargé de fournir la formation aux étudiants qui s’inscrivent aux cours de GFP internationaux du CIPFA. En tant que seule organisation comptable professionnelle mondiale spécialisée dans les services publics, les qualifications du CIPFA constituent la base d’une carrière dans le domaine des finances publiques.
Lire la suite au sujet de la formation en GFP de FreeBalance >>

Rencontrer FreeBalance lors d’un futur évènement au Canada ou en Colombie

FreeBalance participera à plusieurs évènements à venir concernant l’administration publique, la technologie gouvernementale et la gestion des finances publiques (GFP). FreeBalance sera présent lors du XVII Congreso Internacional del CLAD à Carthagène des Indes en Colombie, du 30 octobre au 2 novembre; au Salon des Gouvernements Innovateurs du Canada à Ottawa au Canada, du 5 au 8 novembre; et lors de la Semaine du perfectionnement professionnel de l’Institut de la gestion financière du Canada (IGF) à Ottawa au Canada, du 27 au 30 novembre.
Obtenir le détail des évènements sur le site Web de FreeBalance >>

Un sénateur philippin dépose un « projet de loi sur l’externalisation ouverte »

Le sénateur Teofisto Guingona III dépose un projet de loi 3300 du Sénat ou « L’acte de 2012 sur l’externalisation ouverte » qui permet aux gens de faire entendre leurs commentaires sur les projets de loi en cours devant le Sénat et la Chambre des représentants par l’intermédiaire de courriels, des média sociaux et d’autres technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC). Selon le sénateur Guingona, le projet de loi cherche à exploiter le pouvoir productif et efficace des média sociaux. Plus précisément, le projet de loi met l’accent sur le pouvoir de l’externalisation ouverte pour donner aux citoyens l’opportunité de contribuer à la formulation, l’amélioration et la création des lois qui sont bénéfiques à la nation entière.
Lire l’article complet sur FutureGov >>

Le Wall Street Journal mène la « Big Interview » avec Jim Yong Kim

Le président du Groupe de la Banque mondiale, Jim Yong Kim, s’est assis avec Jacob Schlesinger, chef de bureau à Tokyo pour le Wall Street Journal et le Dow Jones Newswires, afin de discuter de ce qu’il faudrait pour restaurer la croissance et répandre la prospérité en temps de crise. Le Dr. Kim a également répondu en direct aux questions du public.
Rejouer une vidéo archivée et un blogue en direct de l’évènement >>

Soutenir la croissance inclusive à travers l’Afrique

Pendant la dernière décennie, l’Afrique a démontré une croissance économique solide. Un nouvel élan de croissance économique a été établi. Le continent a surmonté la crise financière et a rebondi. Mais afficher la croissance économique n’est pas suffisant. Des politiques intentionnelles pour réduire les inégalités et promouvoir l’inclusion sont dorénavant plus que jamais nécessaire. Il est temps de se concentrer sur les attentes de la population : un travail décent, un salaire suffisant, l’accès aux services de base, plus de démocratie et des gouvernements responsables. L’Afrique et sa population visent à devenir un pôle pour la croissance mondiale dans la décennie à venir.
En lire davantage sur le site Web de la Banque africaine de développement >>

¿Qué hay de nuevo en FreeBalance?

Esta actualización semanal de noticias proporciona a la comunidad de Planeación de Recursos de Gobierno (GRP*) una visión general de los últimos acontecimientos de FreeBalance, además de noticias relevantes de la industria.

FreeBalance se asocia con CIPFA para una capacitación internacional de PFM

FreeBalance ha anunciado una nueva alianza con el  Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) que ayudará a fortalecer la Administración Financiera Pública (PFM*) in países clientes de FreeBalance.  FreeBalance estará acreditado para proporcionar capacitación a estudiantes que se matriculen a los cursos de PFM internacionales del CIPFA.  Siendo la única organización del mundo de contabilidad profesional en especializarse en servicios públicos, las calificaciones de CIPFA son base fundamental para una carrera en finanzas públicas.

Más sobre la capacitación PFM de FreeBalance >>

Conozca a FreeBalance en un evento venidero en Canadá o Colombia

FreeBalance estará participando en una serie de eventos venideros relacionados con la administración pública, tecnología gubernamental y Administración Financiera Pública (PFM*). FreeBalance estará de exhibidor en XVII Congreso Internacional del CLAD en Cartagena de Indias, Colombia desde el 30 de octubre hasta el 3 de noviembre, en el Evento de Tecnología Gubernamental de Canadá (GTEC*) en Ottawa, Canadá, entre el 5 y 8 de noviembre y en la  Semana de Desarrollo Profesional del Instituto de Administración Financiera de Canadá (FMI*) en Ottawa, entre el 27 y 30 de noviembre.
Obtenga los detalles del evento en el sitio web de FreeBalance>>

Senador de Filipinas lanza proyecto de ley de “Crowdsourcing”

El Senador Teofisto Guingona III lanza proyecto de ley 3300 o “Ley de Externalización Colectiva de 2012” el cual permitirá que los ciudadanos opinen sobre los proyectos de ley pendientes de presentación al Senado o la Cámara de Representantes, a través de correo electrónico, medio sociales u otras Tecnologías de la Información de Comunicación (ICT*). De acuerdo con el Senador Guingona, el proyecto de ley busca aprovechar los poderes efectivos de las redes sociales. Específicamente, el proyecto de ley cree en el poder de la externalización colectiva (crowdsourcing) para proporcionar a los ciudadanos la oportunidad de contribuir a la formulación, mejoramiento y creación de las leyes que benefician al país.
Lea el artículo completo de FutureGov >>

El Wall Street Journal realiza ‘La gran Entrevista’ con Jim Yong Kim

El Presidente del World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim se sentó con Jacob Schlesinger, el Jefe de Redacción del Wall Street Journal y del Dow Jones Newswire, de Tokio, para hablar sobre lo que se va a necesitar para restaurar el crecimiento y propagar la prosperidad en tiempos de crisis. El Dr. Kim también respondió algunas preguntas de la audiencia.

Mirar el video y un blog en vivo del evento >>

Abogando por el crecimiento inclusivo a través de África

Durante la última década, África ha mostrado un fuerte crecimiento económico y se ha establecido un ímpetu de crecimiento económico. El continente aguantó una crisis financiera y se ha recuperado, aunque el crecimiento económico de titulares no es suficiente. Ahora lo que se necesita, más que nunca,  son políticas para reducir la inequidad y promocionar la inclusión. Es el momento de concentrarse en las expectativas de las personas: trabajo decente, un jornal de subsistencia mínima, acceso a servicios básicos, mayor democracia y gobiernos que respondan por sus actos. África y sus gentes buscan ser un foco de crecimiento mundial en las décadas por venir.
Más en el sitio Web del Banco de Desarrollo Africano >>

*por sus siglas en inglés

What’s new at FreeBalance?

This weekly news update provides the Government Resource Planning (GRP) community with a brief overview of recent FreeBalance developments and relevant industry news.

FreeBalance Partners with CIPFA to Deliver International PFM Training

FreeBalance has announced a new alliance with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) that will help to strengthen Public Financial Management (PFM) in FreeBalance customer countries. FreeBalance will be accredited to provide training to students who enrol on CIPFA’s International PFM courses. FreeBalance will be accredited to provide training to students who enrol on CIPFA’s International PFM courses. As the world’s only professional accountancy organisation to specialise in the public services, CIPFA’s qualifications are the foundation for a career in public finance.
Read more about FreeBalance PFM Training >>

Join FreeBalance at an Upcoming Event in Canada or Colombia

FreeBalance will be participating in a number of upcoming events related to public administration, government technology and Public Financial Management (PFM). FreeBalance will be exhibiting at XVII Congreso Internacional del CLAD in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia from October 30 – November 2, Canada’s Government Technology Event (GTEC) in Ottawa, Canada from November 5-8 and the Financial Management Institute of Canada’s (FMI) Professional Development Week in Ottawa, Canada from November 27-30.

Get event details on the FreeBalance website>>

Philippine Senator Files “Crowdsourcing Bill”

Senator Teofisto Guingona III files Senate Bill 3300 or “The Crowdsourcing Act of 2012” which would allow people to voice their comments on bills pending before the Senate and the House of Representatives through e-mail, social media and other Information Communication Technologies (ICT). According to Senator Guingona, the Bill seeks to harness the productive and effective power of social media. Specifically, the bill believes in the power of crowdsourcing to give citizens the opportunity to contribute to the formulation, improvement, and creation of laws that benefit the entire nation.
Read the full article from FutureGov >>

Wall Street Journal Conducts ‘The Big Interview’ with Jim Yong Kim

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim sat down with Jacob Schlesinger, Tokyo bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, to discuss what it will take to restore growth and spread prosperity in times of crisis. Dr. Kim also answered questions from the live audience.
Replay an archived video and a liveblog of the event >>

Championing Inclusive Growth Across Africa

For the past decade, Africa has exhibited strong economic growth. A new economic growth momentum has been established. The continent weathered the financial crisis and has bounced back. But headline economic growth is not enough. Deliberate policies to reduce inequalities and promote inclusion are now needed more than ever before. It is time to focus on people’s expectations: decent work, a living wage, access to basic service, more democracy, and accountable governments. Africa and its people aim to be a pole for global growth in the decades ahead.
Read more on the African Development Bank website >>

Leverage “cognitive surplus” to improve public policy

Doug Hadden, VP Products

This is Part 6 of 6 parts detailing the content in my Financial Management Institute of Canada lunch presentation What can we learn about Sustainability from Developing Nation Governments?

Developing countries are adopting processes and technology designed to increase citizen trust while leveraging citizen and civil society cognitive surplus to improve public policy. If the Arab Spring, Tea Party and the Occupy movement has taught governments anything it’s crowdsource to improve public policy – or be crowdsourced.

Many define “democracy” as representative democracy rather than participatory democracy.  Indian MP Ruhal Gandhi suggested that the Anna Hazare hunger strike undermined democracy in India. Yet, it is clear that representative democracy is a thin form because citizens exercise the franchise only during elections.

Transparent and open government data enables developing nations to harness the power of citizens for audit. As I described recently in citizen audit use cases for Public Financial Management (PFM), there are compliance, fraud and performance citizen audit dimensions. Citizen audit is enabled through open data (proactive disclosure of public financial management information on the Internet) and social media collaboration (Internet enabled feedback and discussion.) I further suggested that it is the duty of citizens to leverage open government.

Auditing is expensive. Very expensive in developing countries. That’s why citizens, civil society and businesses are encouraged to help governments. For example, there is nothing better to uncover procurement fraud or poor procurement decisions than competitors.

We have world class external audit in Canada and improving internal audit, as I described in a previous post. David M. Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General has pointed out that the US Government Accountability Office has a proven return on investment though trapping fraud, improving controls, proposing performance improvements etc. Yet, even audit agencies with proven returns are being cut back.

The Performance Problem

As I’ve pointed out before, performance management in the public sector is more complex than in the private sector. Private sector organizations have a bottom line: profit. There are established measurements like market share, and return on assets. Output measurements like the number of customer complaints handled, and outcome measurements like customer satisfaction survey ratings are factors that influence financials – profitability. If all the KPIs are green and the company is not making a profit, than the indicators are likely incorrect.

There is no bottom line in government. Outputs and outcomes are the results. Financial – in this case, budgets, is the input. This makes it very difficult to determine whether the KPIs are correct. There could be false positives and false negatives.

Social media in government, or Government 2.0, can engage citizens and civil society to report on outputs or outcomes. For example, the Ushahidi platform is used to monitor elections, disaster response and corruption.

The next stage in citizen engagement is crowdsourcing through expert groups or the public. This shows promise when managed correctly. For example, an effort at the White House generated some unexpected ideas. The principle of using citizens to propose and vet solutions reduces the burden on governments and may generate ideas to solve important problems.

Participatory Budgeting to go virtual?

Participatory budgeting is a process originally developed in Brazil to engage citizens to improve budgets. Adoption of participatory budgeting has grown particularly at local government. My sense is that the immediacy of service delivery in local government can create a critical mass of participation. The use of neighbourhood and civil society meetings and government outreach may not be sustainable in large regional governments and many national governments.

My view is that participatory budgeting will become virtual in the future. We can learn from the lessons in participatory budgeting to improve outcomes.

There is some sensitivity in governments to crowdsource policy because policy is considered the purview of political wonks. There is a notion of budget confidentiality in Canada that may restrict the kind of openness enjoyed in developing countries.

Open Government Costs

Many argue that open government, social media, crowdsourcing etc. just costs money. I’ve summarized the business case for open government in a previous entry. A recent Transparency Camp Brainstorm identified the following benefit categories for open government:

• Revenue, primarily in the form of increased tax collection through increased economic activity
• Efficiency, effectiveness and productivity through reduced cost per unit of work including cost avoidance
• Outcome improvements such as achieving higher levels of service delivery or improved health statistics

David Eaves argued that open data can reduce the cost for reduce the costs of Freedom of Information processing

Social Media effects

The resistance to social media and open data in developed nation governments contrasts to the attitudes from many developing countries. I find a greater acceptance of the value proposition of open government in countries like Timor-Leste, whose transparency portal is an amazing achievement, than in G8 countries.  The commitments for the Open Government Partnership show that these countries are innovating beyond expectations. This could result in a more engaged population with a deeper form of democracy than we enjoy in Canada today.

As I’ve written before, social media will be transformational for Public Financial Management. The key driver in developing countries is the need to sustain reform. This doesn’t mean sustaining the PFM “status quo”. Or, tweaking processes. This means continuous modernization and reform. Catching up to developed countries. Leapfrogging developed countries. This effort requires citizen engagement.

Let’s hope that governments at all levels in Canada do not hold back and get leapfrogged.

Impact of Public Financial Management on Sustainability

Developing Nations are an economic DEW line

Doug Hadden, VP Products

Many participants at the Financial Management Institute of Canada Public Sector Management Workshop  ”Sustainability in the Public Sector – Securing the Future” in Fredericton New Brunswick last week were intrigued with my presentation: What can we learn about Sustainability from Developing Nation Governments? We had some interesting discussions that I will be blogging about:

1. Impact of Public Financial Management on sustainability
2. ICT4D – Information and Communications Technology for Development
3. Capacity building
4. Sustainable planning
5. Holistic approaches to Public Financial Management [and What if Canada had a PEFA assessment? Part1:PI-1 to PI-14 Part2: PI-15 to PI-28]
6. Sustainable citizen engagement

Financial and environmental sustainability

Sustainability has become a “meme” – a pervasive cross-cutting concept. It’s crept into our vocabulary: a standard bullet point for any government initiative or criticism of the initiative. (I’m waiting for the following question in the House of Commons: “Mr. Speaker, the Right Honourable Prime Minister’s haircut is clearly unsustainable. When will the barber resign?”)

The notion of “sustainability” gets lost in the noise in Canada. It’s visceral in Developing Nations.

The critical calculus in developing countries is that environmental sustainability and financial sustainability are fully linked: climate change, sustainable environmental development, and sustainable financial development. For example, the financial and environmental effects of eliminating the printing of business cards for civil servants in Canada may go unnoticed (unless you live close to a pulp mill).

Public Financial Management sustainability

In Canada and other developed countries, we often think of financial sustainability in government programs. We examine whether the program can be financed in the long run – and whether recurrent operating costs for capital projects can be covered. Developing countries have the additional challenge of sustaining reform. Many programs are designed for modernization. It’s not good enough to sustain programs at a desired level of service. Service levels must progressively and continuously improve over time.

Good public financial management and stewardship of public resources improves financial sustainability. It’s a “virtuous circle” because financial sustainable programs lead to good credit ratings that provide fiscal space so that governments can more easily manage financial and environmental crisis.

Fallacy of the developing country narrative

The media proliferates a stereotype of developing countries: endemic corruption, chronic mismanagement and unceasing poverty. It’s not usual to read “stories” from very reputable journalists who are editorially conditioned to the narrative – at the expense of facts. For one thing, poverty is falling in developing countries. And, PFM systems are coming to the rescue in many countries despite the press skepticism.

Impact of Public Financial Management

Despite advances, there are estimated to be over 1 billion hungry people in the world and millions are surviving at incomes of less than $1.25 a day.

Public Financial Management is an important characteristic for government effectiveness. Governments with better World Governance Indicators: Government Effectiveness have citizens who enjoy higher per capita incomes. Notice that the income scale is exponential.

The “New Normal”

The notion of the “new normal” was coined by Dr. Mohamed El-Erian to describe the post-financial crisis global situation. One characteristic: developing nations, thanks to previous crisis, were better able to deal with the global meltdown than many OECD countries. Some of these countries are now known as PIGS.

Another “new normal” characteristic: developing countries and emerging economies will generate more economic activity than developed countries within the next 5 years.

Another “new normal” characteristic is migration from developed countries to former colonies.

PFM lesson

Many OECD countries were unprepared for the financial crisis. And, these countries did not have sufficient fiscal space to adjust to the situation. Countries with poorer credit ratings and lower human development index were more resilient. Therefore, there must be some things that they are doing well.

My theory is that PFM tools and practices enable resilience and that problems generate more visible effects in developing countries. It’s an economic Distance Early Warning (DEW) LIne for Canada. For example, Canadians complain about rising gasoline prices. Yet, these prices do not affect food security in Canada to the point where millions could starve.

Developing countries have “early warning” for potential crisis. Governments use good practices to deal identify economic effects and plan for natural disasters.

That’s why we learn from developing countries to improve PFM in Canada. These countries often see the crisis before developed countries. And, these countries have adopted good practices to deal with these problems.

Doug Hadden, VP Products

I had a chance to speak at the Financial Management Institute of Canada Public Sector Management Workshop  ”Sustainability in the Public Sector – Securing the Future” in Fredericton New Brunswick last week.

There were some interesting comments and discussions:

• Deficit reduction in government requires much higher upfront costs than usually expected. There can be ramifications to cutting like severance packages, sub-leasing space, environmental studies, training etc.
• The use of IT shared services to reduce overall costs in the Government of Canada has had some unanticipated costs for departments and agencies.
• Departments and agencies in the Government of Canada need plans for cutting 20% to 30% of expenses to achieve the 10% target. Many budget cut proposals are not accepted.
• Internal audit improvements in the Government of Canada is progressing slower than expected.
• The demographic shift and migration means that the Province of New Brunswick is aging faster than any other province in Canada. This has motivated a focus to improve public financial management and introduce performance management in the province.

Doug Hadden, VP Products

I spoke earlier this week at the Financial Management Institute (FMI) of Canada Public Sector Management Workshop (PSMW) 2012 in Fredericton New Brunswick. As a speaker, I was in the company of some interesting speakers.

Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer, Government of Canada – Monday Keynote

The Hon. Blaine Higgs, Minister of Finance, Province of New Brunswick – Tuesday Keynote

Jeffrey Simpson – Globe and Mail National Affairs Columnist and Author of Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Challenge, Closing Keynote Speakder

My presentation, “what we can learn about sustainability from developing countries,” was warmly received at the Monday lunch.

Charles-Antoine St. Jean, the former Comptroller General of Canada spoke during the Tuesday lunch. August company. I had a chance to speak with Charles-Antoine who is now a Partner at Ernst and Young. He was very positive about the FreeBalance international growth. Many FMI attendees were equally complementary about this good story – adapting proven governance solutions for countries around the world. And, it’s the kind of “export” Canadians can be proud of because of the linkage between good governance and poverty reduction in a sustainable fashion.Environmental and fiscal sustainability are critical issues in developing countries.

Many attendees spoke with me about the presentation. One FreeBalance customer was surprised by the amount of preparation that went into the presentation. I guess it’s best to start with low expectations! Most were intrigued by the rich content that seemed to flip by at light speed. There was so much interest that I annotated and posted the presentation on Tuesday. It’s embedded below as well. I will be expanding on many of the subjects over the coming week or so in the blog.

Slideshare.

Check out the #PSMW2012 hash tag on Twitter if you want more information on the presentations and panels.

Lo Nuevo en FreeBalance

Esta actualización semanal de noticias proporciona a la comunidad de Planeación de Recursos del Gobierno (GRP*) una visión general de los recientes desarrollos de FreeBalance y las noticias relevantes de la industria.

FreeBalance presentará: “¿Qué podemos aprender de sostenibilidad de las naciones en desarrollo?” en el Taller de Manejo del Sector Público del FMI

La sostenibilidad es un mandato para muchas organizaciones gubernamentales de los países en desarrollo y además, una necesidad diaria. ¿Qué podemos aprender de las prácticas de sostenibilidad de la administración financiera pública y tecnología de la información de estos países? El próximo lunes 28 de mayo, FreeBalance compartirá las lecciones aprendidas de los sistemas de administración financiera gubernamental sostenible. El Taller de Trabajo de Administración Pública del Sector Público del Instituto de Administración Financiera de Canadá (FMI*) se llevará a cabo entre el 27 y 29 de mayo próximos en Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canadá. El tema de este año del Taller de Trabajo de Administración Pública del Sector Público es “Sostenibilidad en el Sector Público, Asegurando el Futuro”.
Más >>

Fudd o FUD? Qué sucedió con la inteligencia competitiva de los proveedores de ERP?

FUD* – “temer a la incertidumbre y la duda” es una técnica utilizada en la industria de la tecnología para plantear inquietudes sobre los competidores. Wikipedia lo define como una táctica de desinformación. FUD puede ser efectivo cuando la desinformación se basa en hechos. Los proveedores extrapolan un argumento de estos hechos para crear incertidumbre en la mente de sus clientes. No es una parte atractiva para la industria del software, sin embargo se utiliza con frecuencia.
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Aprendiendo de la clave de la crisis para restaurar el crecimiento económico

Formuladores de políticas, estudiosos y altos funcionarios del FMI se reunieron en el 3er Foro Fiscal Anual para discutir los problemas fiscales mundiales, con la incertidumbre aun sobre muchas economías. Muchos países aun experimentan una perspectiva económica incierta, el buscar el camino hacia la prosperidad económica puede ser un camino difícil pero no imposible, aceptaron muchos delegados que asistieron a la conferencia. El día anterior, la FMI había publicado su último análisis sobre la deuda de los gobiernos y los déficits alrededor del mundo, que hablaba sobre los riesgos fiscales en franca caída en mucho países pero aun altos en otros.
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Construyendo un sistema financiero más fuerte, ¿ya casi llegamos?

Después de casi cinco años después del inicio de la crisis financiera mundial se ha hecho mucho para reformar el sistema financiero mundial, pero aún queda mucho por hacer. Una reforma integral, una vez que haya sido aprobada e implementada completamente, tendrá implicaciones de largo alcance para el sistema financiero mundial y la economía global.
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Los Directores de Tecnologías de la Información (CIOs*) de la ASEAN hacen planes para una Comunidad Económica Sin Fronteras

Kumpol Sontanarat, CIO de Comisión de Bolsa y Valores de Tailandia (SEC*), compartió con FutureGov cómo la Comunidad Económica de la ASEAN (AEC*) traería cambios a la industria de ICT de la región. Hong Kong y Nueva Zelanda se clasifican en las posiciones 11 y 14 respectivamente en el informe publicado recientemente en Singapur.
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