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Conversation with the CIPFA International Team
atseacliff:
For our third conversation on the Board, it is a big pleasure for us to welcome the Team from the CIPFA International. They are Alan Edwards, Director, and Assistant Directors Peter Boulding, Gordon Ferrier and Tony Redmond.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is the only professional accountancy body and member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) that specialises in the public sector. Their Team are involved in a wide range of international projects around the World.
If you are a registered member of the Board, you have the possibility to pose a question to the CIPFA International Team by making a post (REPLY button) to this topic. The time allotted for questions is Monday 23rd May to Wednesday Ist June 2011. After this period the interview will be closed and remain in the archive for future reference.
Gentlemen; welcome on the Board. Let me kick off the conversation by asking
Question 1 Some Board Members might not be familiar with CIPFA. Please give us a bit of background to the organization and why a not-for-profit organization gets involved in international activities?
Question 2 How can become a member of CIPFA; and what are the benefits of being a member?
Napodano:
Hi, Team; it is an honor for the Board to have you with us.
I like to pass on to you two questions often heard from local officials in seminars organized in transition countries.
Question 3: ‘ We are working in the Financial Management Unit of the ministry, we are few staff and overworked. What is wrong with asking our colleagues from internal audit to help us in our routine work for financial control? Can’t they validate our work ex-ante so that it can be adjusted in real time? They are well paid and received a lot of training, so why not?’
Question 4: ‘We are working in the Financial Management Unit of the ministry, we are few staff and overwhelmed by the audit inspections from our internal audit unit, the external audit agency and the Tax Inspectorate as well. They seem to ask all the same questions but in different formats? Now Government is about to create a Council for the promotion of the internal audit function, which could have among its responsibilities that of revising audit reports. Isn’t all the above an overlap of functions and too much too soon for a transition country?’
peterboulding:
Answer to question 1:
CIPFA, The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, is one of the six UK and Irish Accountancy bodies and the only one that specialises in the public services, indeed it is unique in this. We have a membership of some 14,000 who have qualified or are qualifying through a three part examination system: all members are required to undertake continuous professional development. We have members working in the UK (central and local government, internal and external audit, mostly) in European institutions (the Commission, Court of Audit, Anti-Fraud Office, NATO and elesewhere) in UN institutions and many others. Many members work in international consultancy and have worked across the globe. The CIPFA secretariat is based in London with a small international directorate (six staff headed by Alan Edwards). Currently one of the assistant directors, Tony Redmond, in based in South Africa where he co-ordinates our work in the region. We see professionalisation as the key to sustainable PFM capacity development (this was very much the theme of our recent International Conference in March - see our website www.cipfa.org.uk for full details and webcasts of each presentation). CIPFA is active in the EU, south eastern Europe and Africa (notably Nigeria, Lesotho and South Africa with other countries in prospect).
In the UK CIPFA's Policy and Technical directorate is recognised as a centre of excellence by Her Majesty's Treasury and provides accounting and internal audit standards for local government, as well as advice on the transition to accrual accounting, and support to the devlepoement of CIPFA's Financial Management Model - an assessment tool for organisations on their progress with PFM best practice. Our Education and Membership department has a specialist education and training centre that provides professional international and UK training. We aso offer a rich diversity of benchmarking, statistical and a portfolio of short course training.
Why do we get involved with international work? We see this stategically. CIPFA's Strategic purpose is set as folows: "Working to promote high standards and deliver excellence in governance and financial management throughout the public services." Our vision for CIPFA is expressed as: "To be acknowledged globally as the leading institute for public financial managment." You may say this is easy to achieve as CIPFA is the only global institute, but it is the acknowledgement we are working hard to get to. We recognise that globalisation has created an inter-connected world where high public sector standards of governance and fiduciary responsibility are ingreat demand. CIPFA has been in existence of over 125 years now and has built up a substantial portfolio of materials which can resonate in other juristidictions, and not just the English speaking world. We look to find optimal ways to share this experience across the world. CIPFA was a founder member of the International Federation of Accountants and its staff and officials hold a number of key positions on or advising committees there; giving us an important platform for influence. We see a particular need to promote professionalisation as an important plank of sustainable PFM reform because of the legacy effects created by a cadre of professionally qualified accountants and auditors whose skills are sustained by strong professional bodies offering demanding examinations and follow on support through continuous professional development and other services. In our opinion much short course training falls very short of the mark.
Answer to question 2:
How to become a CIPFA member. There are in essence two main routes to obtain CIPFA professional PFM qualifications: the CIPFA qualification for UK graduates (three levels leading to full membership) and our international PFM qualifications. Both routes require the passing of examination papers that test professional competence at various levels. The international route currently consists of a Certificate course (financial and management accounting papers and a local module covering the PFM environment in that country) the a Diploma course covering managing finance, managing organisations, audit and assurance and public sector financial reporting. Our international qualifcations board is reviewing the International Certificate and Diploma with a view to encouraging even greater access and progression.
The benefits of membership, holding a specifically designed PFM qualification by an individual, are numerous.
They include:
*acquisition of a valued and broad range of skills - finance, leadership, business, strategy, communication, negotiation, influence and management, etc;
*attractiveness to a broad range of employers - the global public sector is diverse;
*standing and status - upholding public trust and integrity;
*satisfaction - in improving the communities where you work; and
*variety and challenges - this is especially true in the international sphere where the diversity is immense.
Organisational benefits include keeping staff up-to-date, the maintence of professional discipline through a code of ethics, colaborative working to imporve PFM and the acquisition of access to sources of information and expertise.
petagny:
Question 5: I read with interest the consultation paper on CIPFA's 'Whole system approach to PFM' back in 2009, but unfortunately I rather lost track of where things went afterwards. Please could you give some background on how this initiative has developed and how it now fits in with CIPFA's ongoing international work?
AlanEdwards:
Answer to question 5
The Whole System Approach and the other thought pieces that we have prepared for DFID have formed the basis of all our international PFM work. Effectively that was the rationale for our International PFM conference that we held in March. This was a major success with over 200 delegates from over 40 countries. You can view the videos of the presentations on our website www.cipfa.org.uk/international. As for the actual documents that we have produced we have pulled them all together in a single website on professionalisation that went live last week!
For a good summary of our approach to professionalisation and how that sits with a whole system approach you can see my presentation at the CAPA public sector conference last week in Seoul. This was a great event attended by accounting bodies and PFM practitioners from all over asia pacific region. The need for professional development to sit alongside the move to international standards was well understood. Catch my talk and all our thinking on professionalisation at www.cipfa.org.uk/ppfm
Alan Edwards, CIPFA International Director
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