The importance of public financial management for the health and wellbeing of citizens became dramatically apparent as governments sought to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Now, governments and other public sector organizations face the challenge of recovering from the pandemic whilst also seeking to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, with squeezed budgets and ever-increasing demands for public services.
Public sector managers are confronted daily with targets and demands that are often set in confusing accounting and financial language. In Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector, Gary Bandy employs a clear and concise narrative to introduce the core concepts of public financial management to help those managers to deliver programmes, projects and services that are value for money. As the author puts it, managing public money is an art, not a science.
This third edition has been revised and updated throughout, offering:
- a structure that is more clearly linked to the stages of the public financial management cycle
- greater coverage of transparency and accountability issues
- a broader view of public procurement to include goods, works and services and effective contract management; and
- an increased focus on public spending in the context of a post-COVID environment.
With a glossary of terms to help managers understand and be understood by accountants, as well as learning objectives, discussion questions and exercises, this practical textbook will help students of public management and administration to understand the financial and accounting aspects of managing public services.
CONTENTS
List of illustrations
Foreword
Preface to the third edition
About the author
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1 The context of public financial management
2 Public sector budgeting
3 Taxation and other sources of income
4 Budget execution
5 Using financial information to make decisions
6 Public procurement
7 Measuring performance and value for money
8 Accountability and financial reporting
9 Audit
Appendix A Budgeting in public enterprise: the State Social Security Fund of Sri Lanka
Suggested answers for exercises
Glossary of terms
Index
Biography
Gary Bandy has been an independent public financial management consultant since 2005. He has advised organizations in the charity sector, education, policing, local government and the private sector. Gary has an MPA from Warwick Business School and has taught public financial management at several universities in the United Kingdom as well as sharing his expertise with civil servants in many places, including Rwanda, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan.
