Having spent a number of
years working in the private sector, my roles in the public sector show that my
skills are transferable, both in terms of operational accounting and at the
strategic level. I have split this section into two - the things that I have done for the public sector and something that I have not. My experience has been with four public sector
organisations, and for three of these I have described these roles in the
context of case studies - Oxfordshire County Council
(a local authority), the London Development Agency (part
of the Mayor of London's brief but funded in the main by central government)
and the Olympic Delivery Authority, a Non-Departmental
Public Body (or NDPB). Also, I have worked in the health service - the Royal
Free Hampstead NHS Trust is a large acute and teaching hospital; since the role
is similar to other assignments, I have not prepared a case study.
I have prepared a separate
paper on the implications for IFRS
conversion in the public sector
There were three main
achievements at Oxfordshire for which I was responsible:
·
the important and yearend process. I
managed the years ended March 2004 and 2005 which followed qualification of the
2003 accounts. The achievement here was to ensure that the accounts for 2004
were not qualified as the reasons behind the qualification the previous year
had not been entirely cleared. The second year saw a change in auditors from
the Audit Commission to KPMG, and this process had to be repeated. Neither
years' accounts were qualified
·
for being an important agent for change
in the re-implementation of SAP. There were a number of areas where SAP was not
providing key financial controls (which was a specific requirement of my role),
and these had to be tighted up. This involved getting
buy-in for changes to SAP from peer-group finance managers within the Authority
·
designing and implementing a management
accounts format. There were a number of gaps in the format used, so I designed
a more advanced format, along the lines shown in this document but with changes
specific to the Authority. Again, this needed the buy-in of the peer group of
finance managers.
At the LDA, I was a key
change agent for the improvement of its BVPI 8 score (which needed changes to
the accounting software setup) and for managing its obscure VAT status.
The ODA was a start-up and
here the challenge was to set up from scratch many of the processes and
procedures that would form part of the organisational culture going forward and
in particular in drafting its first statutory accounts using policies that
would stand the test of time. Much of the thinking behind the implementation of
processes and procedures at the ODA was to anticipate potential questions under
the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and, in turn, the reporting systems were set
up to reflect this. The ODA has a very high political profile within both
Whitehall and Westminster and this work has had to pay particularly careful
attention to the requirements of their associated bodies.
These are key experiences
that I am able to bring to local government, whether for county, district or
unitary authorities as well as for government departments (the ODA is a
Non-Departmental Public Body). Although there is no forecasting and budgeting
skills listed in these roles, I have substantial experience of operational and
strategic forecasting experience from the private sector that can be applied in
the public sector, for example Raising
Funds From External Sources demonstrates my
ability to lead or support a funding bidding process.
Please note that I am not
"security cleared".
A role that I haven't done in
the public sector is financial analysis and planning. However I have
successfully completed the role in a number of organisations in the private
sector and also I have shown that I can apply the associated skill, that to
make high level presentations at the highest level.
Raising funds from
external sources is based around the key skills of business planning and presentation. In
public sector terms, this means that based around negotiations with budget
holders, I am able to prepare profiled budgets, on an accruals basis, that can
be put before, for example a public authority or a government department - the
equivalent to a bank in the private sector.
Concluding point
I am
experienced in the basic financial skills that are relevant to a public body:
These are illustrated in the
three case studies given
Financial planning and
analysis is the only significant financial skill that is missing from this list
and I am confident that I can transfer the skill that I have earned in the
private sector can be transferred to the public sector