8
FMI
*
IGF JOURNAL
VOLUME 24, NO. 1
Enhance the Financial
Management Capacity in
the Public Service
Juliet Woodfield
Congratulations, Financial Management
Institute! Fifty years of financial man-
agement professional development and
national community building is a sig-
nificant achievement and something all
of its current and former members and
executives across this great nation should
be proud of!
Who are we?
The Financial Management Institute is a
nationally recognized, not-for-profit vol-
unteer association founded in 1962. What
started out as a small group of senior federal
government accountants meeting around
a lunch table to discuss issues of financial
management and the role of financial advi-
sors within government has grown to thou-
sands of members, both within and outside
the public sector, all working to improve
the financial management of all levels of
government across Canada.
How the community has grown! The
federal government financial manage-
ment community in 2012 is made up of
over 5,500 federal government employees,
located from coast to coast. Its members
work for over 100 different government
departments and agencies and serve a key
role in the oversight and management of
over $260 billion in annual expenditures.
Whether our members are involved in ac-
counting operations, financial resource
management, information systems, or
policy areas at National Defence or the
Canadian International Development
Agency, the work is extremely important,
with value added for Canadians.
Progress made
Our federal government financial man-
agement community has made significant
progress in the past few years. Previous
Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, in her
audit report dated May 2006, noted that
“departments selected for that audit had
made some progress in resolving finan-
cial control weaknesses and improving
their financial management competen-
cies. However, we noted that unless they
also improved their financial controls, the
quality of information used for many key
decisions would be at risk.” She was clearly
concerned about the state of the financial
management community at that time.
Five years later, in her June 2011 report,
she observed the following:
“Financial human resource capacity has
improved since our last report. The Office
of the Comptroller General has put in
place several measures to enhance capac-
ity, including guidelines on the qualifica-
tions of chief financial officers, mandatory
training courses for financial staff, promo-
tion of professional accounting designa-
tions for mid-level financial officers and
financial managers, staffing initiatives, and
forums and exchanges on best practices.
Departments are working to maintain and
strengthen their workforce by recruiting,
training, and developing the appropriate
number of financial officers and managers
with the required skills, competencies, and
experience.”
This observation from Ms. Fraser rep-
resents the results of the hard work that
has been taken on by the federal financial
management community. The commu-
nity includes the Financial Management
Institute, whose goal is to develop the
required skills and competencies for good
financial management. Bravo to the federal
government financial officers who have
worked hard toward this accomplishment.
Building our community
The Comptroller General of Canada, cur-
rently James Ralston, CA, is responsible
for providing functional direction and as-
surance for financial management, internal
audit, investment planning, procurement,
project management, and the manage-
ment of real property and materiel across
the federal government. The Office of the
Comptroller General (OCG) supports the
Comptroller General of Canada in this
by working to ensure that sound policies,
standards and practices are in place, over-
seeing performance and compliance across
government, and maintaining and building
vibrant professional communities through
a range of recruitment and development
activities.
The OCG has traditionally focused its
community development efforts on recruit-
ing and training new financial officers. Our
national recruitment program, the Finan-
cial Officer Recruitment and Development
(FORD) Program has been in existence for
over 30 years. Recruits from its early days
are now in key leadership positions across
the federal government. This program is
a cornerstone in our community and will
continue to recruit new members to re-
spond to our ongoing requirement for new
skills and new enthusiasm.
Our Chartered Accountant Student
Training (CAST) Program, which started
in 2008, has recruited 59 individuals. These
new financial officers are working towards
obtaining their Chartered Accountant
designation. This program means that,
depending on the hiring recruitment
program, new financial officers who enter
the federal government community are
able to obtain professional accreditation in
all three professional accounting bodies,
including the Society of Management
Accountants of Canada and the Certified
General Accountants Association of Canada.
Past
vs.
Present
#1: Community & Capacity Building
The
Present
Courtesy: Maclean’s 2012
James Bond turns 50.
