Download or read book Financial management in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has made good progress in its financial management, aiming to establish itself as one of the best departments in Whitehall in this respect. It has shown strong leadership in raising the profile of good financial management across the Department. Up to 2007-08, however, the FCO has underspent consistently against its budget. The Department has introduced a financial management improvement programme "Five Star Finance", the aim of which is for the department to be a Whitehall leader in financial management. It currently rates itself at three and a half stars on a 1(low) to 5 (high) scale, a rating confirmed by NAO. The FCO operates in a challenging environment in terms of the global nature of its operations. The fluctuations of global currency markets pose particular difficulties for the Department. Until 2007-08, its budgets were protected by the Treasury from exchange rate fluctuations. When this protection was withdrawn, the FCO introduced alternative measures to manage its exposure, principally the forward purchase of major foreign currencies. It needs to ensure that its finance team has the right skills and experience to manage the financial risks it now faces. The FCO is taking action to avoid future underspends against its budget. In other respects, FCO's financial management has improved. The accuracy, reliability and timeliness of its financial reporting have all been enhanced. In 2007-08 it laid its accounts on 30 June, the earliest date it has ever achieved after the March year-end.
Download or read book Financial Management in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office written by Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Financial Management in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against a backdrop of historically weak financial management and significant under-spending, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made considerable progress over the past three years to improve the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of financial information. Having recognised the need to take action, the Department set up its 'Five Star Finance' project which is due to completed in the summer of 2010. Of particular benefit has been the recruitment of a professionally qualified finance director and increasing the number of professionally qualified accountants within the finance function. An important factor has been the need for better information on the costs of individual embassies and this has been strengthened. Further action, though, is still required to implement a workable and effective system of costing activity in all locations to enable it to make informed decisions about its operational priorities. Given that over half of the Department's expenditure of some £2 billion is paid out in foreign currency the Department has suffered a significant reduction in purchasing power as a result of the weakening of the Sterling. The Department now forward purchases US dollars, euros and yen but with input from the Treasury it also needs to work with other Departments to identify the most effective way to manage exchange rate risk for the government as a whole. The Department confirmed that its aim is to maximise the benefits from each of its embassies in pursuit of British trade and foreign policy interests and that it has no plans to sell-off any of its prestigious buildings around the world
Download or read book Progress in improving financial management in Government written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite good progress in improving the professional capability and capacity of government finance departments since the National Audit Office last reported in 2008, good financial management is still not embedded in the civil service culture, and financial matters do not have sufficient influence over departments' strategic decision making. The NAO concludes that departments have achieved a core level of competence in financial management, but further improvement in financial management capacity and capability throughout their organisations is required to enable them to meet the challenge of delivering the savings set out in the Spending Review 2010. There has been important progress - all departments now have a professionally qualified Finance Director, supported by an increased number of qualified finance staff. The Treasury is also implementing accounting changes to bring greater transparency to government financial reporting. Whitehall's central finance functions competently capture and report the transactions and financial position of the departments. Annual accounts are delivered before the July Parliamentary recess. The number of overall overspends against the amounts approved by Parliament is low. However, departments are generally weak at monitoring their balance sheets and at forecasting cash flow in the medium term. Departments do not fully understand the costs of their activities, and it is rare for them to have good information on the unit costs of outputs, levels of productivity or the value of outcomes. Departments generally focus on monitoring against the agreed one-year budget, with a few looking as far ahead as the current spending review period of four years.
Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007 08 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources, examining the departmental annual report for 2007-08 (Cm. 7398, ISBN 9780101739825). Chapters cover: new strategic framework; performance measurement; global network; essential services; FCO Services; personnel issues; transparency and openness; financial management; public diplomacy and communication; the British Council; the BBC World Service. The Committee is concerned that the FCO is facing serious financial pressures in this financial year due to the Treasury's withdrawal of its support for the Overseas Pricing Mechanism (OPM) which used to protect departments from the weakening of sterling. There is a risk that the FCO may not be able to meet higher international subscriptions over the next two financial years, causing its performance against Public Service Agreement targets to suffer. The likely increase in the UN Regular Budget and other international subscriptions will push this figure even higher. The FCO should have to shoulder the financial burden from within its already tight budget to pay for subscriptions which also benefit other Government departments. The Committee recommends that additional nondiscretionary costs should properly be met by the Treasury.
Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2008 09 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The FCO departmental report and resource accounts 2008-09 published as HC 460-I,II (ISBN 9780102961614)
Download or read book Adapting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office s Global Estate to the Modern World written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The FCO (the Department) has over 4,000 buildings across its global estate, in 279 different locations. The estate is a mix of properties including embassy, high commission and consular offices, ambassadorial residences, prestige and historical buildings and staff accommodation. The estate is valued at £1.6 billion and capital and revenue expenditure in 2008-09 totalled £269 million. The Committee welcomes the improvements the Department has made in managing its estate more effectively, including the recent appointment of an estates specialist as estates director and the development of a new estate strategy. The Department however has a poor understanding of its estate and the information it holds on its properties is basic, incomplete, out of date and inaccurate. In addition, the Department does not collect data, such as the cost and amount of space per person, recommended by the Office of Government Commerce for the effective management of government offices in the UK. The Department has unused space in its offices even in locations where other UK government organisations are based in separate premises. Other organisations are often deterred from co-locating with the Department because of the security measures necessary in embassies as well as the high charges they must pay to use the Department's buildings. The Department now needs a better managed estate with improved data to enhance understanding of the estate, and its new strategy to be implemented effectively at each location.
Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office annual report 2006 07 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-19 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources. This year a key area off interest has been the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review because the Committee think it is one of the tightest in Whitehall and it risks jeopardising some of the FCO's important work. Apart from this the other subjects covered are: measuring performance; operational efficiency; management and leadership; FCO services; diplomatic representation overseas; transparency and openness; public diplomacy; British council; BBC World Service.
Download or read book Adapting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office s global estate to the modern world written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office lacks a clear strategy and comprehensive data to manage its overseas estate effectively. It is taking positive steps to adapt its properties to new global challenges but has not achieved value for money in the management of its estate as a whole. Without a clear framework to assess the estate's performance, it is difficult to evaluate the Department's progress. The Department has recently appointed an estates specialist as Director of Estates and Security who is developing a new strategy which should help secure improved value for money in the future. There are several factors, such as changing political issues, security restrictions and exchange rate pressures, which add to the complexity of managing the global estate. But lack of adequate financial and management information about the estate hampers good decision making on efficient use of space and the identification of surplus assets for potential sale. The management of projects to improve the estate could be better: a third of the projects that the NAO analysed exceeded their initial approved budget by over 10 per cent and two-thirds were delivered late. The total cost overrun since 2002 is approximately £57 million, against a total spent on capital projects of £250 million. The FCO does not always use space in its posts efficiently. Over half of the posts that responded to the NAO's survey have unused office space or staff accommodation. The FCO could do more to promote the use of its overseas estate by other UK government organisations where feasible.
Download or read book FCO performance and finances written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report focusses on the FCO's financial situation and the implications of the Spending Review 2010 for its work and performance, and that of its associated body, the British Council. The FCO is one of the major departmental 'losers' in the Spending Review. Reductions in spending on the FCO, if they result in shortfalls in skilled personnel and technical support in key countries and regions, can have a serious effect in terms of the UK's relations with foreign countries, out of all proportion to the amounts of money involved, especially in relation to the UK's security and that of its Overseas Territories. Cuts to the core FCO budget of even 10% may have a damaging effect on the Department's ability to promote UK interests overseas. The FCO will also face cuts of 55% to its capital budget. The target of raising £50 million per year through selling existing buildings may be difficult to achieve, and may not secure savings in the long-term. A further reduction in the opportunities for more junior UK-based staff to serve in overseas posts, and a consequent diminishing of experience and morale among FCO employees, could over time have a damaging effect on the quality of British diplomacy and the effectiveness of the FCO. The British Council, facing a 25% cut in spending, should give detailed information on its strategy for implementing the cut, which may well trigger fundamental rethinking of the role and work of the Council.
Download or read book Financial management written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-03-10 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has improved the maturity of its financial management in a number of areas but the National Audit Office has not been able to conclude that the Department is achieving value for money. The report concludes that the commitment to financial management shown on the Olympic programme needs to be replicated across the Department's wider responsibilities. The accounts have always received unqualified audit opinions, and internal administration has improved, with budget holders facing direct challenge, and the creation of an Investment Committee. However, the finance team still needs to improve its performance in a number of areas: in particular in strengthening the role it plays in support of key policy decisions. DCMS has a history of over-committing its budget allocations across its arm's-length bodies. In April 2009, initial forecasts for 2009-10 showed capital budgets had been over-committed by £95 million, and in 2010-11 by £110 million. The DCMS opted to apply a standard flat-rate cut to the budgets of the majority of its arm's-length bodies. The ultimate impact of these cuts on frontline delivery cannot yet be assessed. The Department's decision to close and merge a number of its arm's-length bodies was not informed by a financial analysis of the costs and benefits. It based its decisions on estimates which did not take account of the full costs of closure such as lease cancellation, redundancy and pension costs.
Download or read book BIALL Handbook of Legal Information Management written by Loyita Worley and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For this new handbook, BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians) has brought together an unparalleled team of respected experts to provide authoritative and up-to-date best practice guidance on the key legal information issues for every type of service, focusing particularly on the balance between electronic and printed resources, free and charged services and electronic and on-site access. Beginning with a survey of the growth of law librarianship, and an analysis of different types of services and users, the Handbook goes on to discuss research techniques for hard copy and electronic information, giving tips on how to 'know it all and find it fast'. Subsequent chapters describe how to source and organise different types of legal information; how to choose and purchase library management systems; and how to manage budgets and financial demand.
Download or read book Financial Management in Government Departments written by and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Financial management report written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sound financial management will be essential at the Department for International Development as its spending increases by a third over the next four years. The Department has put important building blocks in place; however its financial management is not yet mature. The Department cannot yet assess important aspects of the value for money of the aid it has delivered, at an aggregated level. The Department's programme budget will grow by £3.3 billion from 2010-11 to 2014-15 (34 per cent in real terms). At the same time, its administration budget is going to reduce by a third. The Department has increased the number of finance professionals it employs, but this expertise needs to be used more effectively across the business. In addition, new financial information systems do not yet provide the data needed to support well-founded decisions and forecasts are still an area of weakness. After a thorough review the Department now has a high level plan. Along with actions to strengthen measurement of aid projects, this has the potential to help strengthen the focus on aid results and value for money. But key risks need to be managed and a single strategy for doing so is needed. With greater spending in higher risk locations and more fragile states more must be done to assure that fraud and corruption risks are minimised. Although the level of reported fraud is low, it is likely to be under-reported. The NAO has found that the investigation of fraud is reactive and the Department does not attempt to quantify its estimated likely fraud losses
Download or read book DfID financial management written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the Department for International Development's financial management capability, its increasing focus on value for money, and the challenges it faces in managing its increasing programme budget while reducing its overall running costs. DFID is protected from overall expenditure reductions as the Government has committed to increasing the UK's aid spending to 0.7% of gross national income by 2013. The Department faces a substantial challenge to improve its financial management while reducing its administration costs by a third over the next four years. The Committee welcomes the planned introduction, in 2011, of a finance improvement plan. DFID must now keep up the focus on better financial management. There is concern that the Department does not quantify the likely level of leakage through fraud and corruption. And DFID is only considering fraud risk at the level of delivery method rather than at a country level. Management of fraud risk will require a stronger framework for ensuring money is properly spent on the ground, with effective monitoring and pro-active anti-fraud work. The likely increase in funding via multilateral organisations (which then determine how to distribute the aid worldwide) might not ensure value for money as DFID does not have the same visibility over the cost and performance of multilaterals' programmes as it does over its own bilateral programmes. Finally, the Committee is concerned that the Department still has insufficient data to make informed investment decisions based on value for money.
Download or read book The Commonwealth Financial Management Improvement Program written by Malcolm Holmes and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
