AUTUMN 2013
FMI
*
IGF JOURNAL
11
About the Author:
Gillian Fawcett is Head of Public Sector for the Association of Chartered
Certified Accountants (ACCA) Global responsible for developing international
policy on technical matters affecting finance professionals in public services.
Before joining ACCA, Gillian was a Senior Fellow working with the Office for
Public Management (OPM) in the organisational development and policy team.
She has also worked for the Audit Commission in the UK, where she was
Senior Policy Advisor with expertise in corporate governance, financial manage-
ment, performance management and human rights and equalities. In 2005 she was seconded
to the UK Parliament as Deputy Head of the Scrutiny Unit, responsible for providing professional
financial and performance management support to a wide range of select committees.
Most recently, she was appointed as a Specialist Advisor to a House of Commons Ad Hoc
Committee. She is Vice Chair of the Macro Economic Committee for the European Centre
of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services (CEEP). She is also a member of
the Federation of European Accountants (FEE) and the Confederation of Asian and Pacific
Accountants (CAPA) public sector committees. Also, she was formerly Specialist Advisor to the
Communities and Local Government Parliamentary Select Committee and a non-executive of the
Legal Action Group (UK). Gillian has an MBA and began her career as a qualified accountant.
ACCA (the Association of Chartered
Certified Accountants) is the global
body for professional accountants.
ACCA offers business-relevant,
first-choice qualifications to people
of application, ability and ambition
around the world who seek a rewarding
career in accountancy, finance and
management. ACCA supports its
162,000 members and 428,000 students
(around 2,500 members and 1,200
students in Canada) in 173 countries,
helping them to develop successful
careers in accounting and business,
with the skills required by employers.
Through our public interest remit,
ACCA promotes appropriate regulation
of accounting and conducts relevant
research to ensure accountancy
continues to grow in reputation and
influence.
ACCA is not affiliated with any chartered
accountant (CA) organization.
both underdeveloped and not financially
grounded. The thorny issue of how to
overcome the short termism that is driven
by the political cycle is an issue that must
be tackled in order to achieve long-term
sustainability and maximise public value.
The Deloitte research also recommended
improving long-term planning with a
greater emphasis on making innovation an
integral part of a strategy.
Strategic working at a multi–agency level
is still seen as too difficult and managers
struggle to devote sufficient time to it
because of everyday pressures. The finance
function is making a positive contribution
to
developing
and
implementing
strategies, as well as communicating them
more widely. However, in the UK central
government there is a pressing need to
strengthen financial management. Overall,
there is much more to be done in equipping
financial managers with formal strategic
management skills and experience so as
to strengthen leaders across organizations
and this should include increased priority
on attracting and developing innovative
leaders at all levels across the public
service. There are lessons to be learnt
from both sets of research for countries
undergoing severe austerity measures or
just wanting to tighten public spending.
The challenge now is to work towards
embedding strategic financial leadership
into organizations. Although Canada has
fared much better than many jurisdictions
similar to the UK, it is not immune to the
challenges that threaten public services
and the need to improve strategic financial
management to deal with emerging issues.
Photo courtesy: Charlotte Ward
NEVER FORGET
Ontario Veterans War Memorial is a 30-metre-long
(98 ft) granite wall located on the front south lawn
of Queen’s Park in Toronto. The wall, officially
unveiled in September 2006, features laser-etched
images (mostly photographic) depicting scenes of
the Canadian military’s role in times of peace and
war since 1867 to the most recent conflict listed
“The Campaign Against Terror”.
IS THE PUBLIC SECTOR BEREFT OF STRATEGIC FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP?
