The course on Managing Government Finances aims to give students a basis for considering the environment that public sector managers operate in as it bears on their management of public financial resources.

The course steers between:

• the methodologies of financial decision-making and analysis, and
• description or analysis of the Australian government system.

Regarding the latter aspect, an understanding of the institutional and broad behavioural aspects of the Australian system of politics and government is assumed, at least at a basic level, and is an advised precondition.

While the course places its major focus on middle to senior public sector managers in the Australian government system, its emphasis on principles and concepts of government, government processes and public management broadens its appeal, including to students and public officials from outside Australia.  The course forms a mandatory component, for those students who enrol through the ANU, of ANZSOG's Executive Master of Public Administration degree.

The course investigates the roles carried out by managers in government agencies in managing public financial resources, and the political and administrative setting in which government finances are managed.

Lectures are multi-disciplinary.  They cover:

• the Australian institutional and statutory governance structure,
• the economics of the public sector,
• the Australian Government model of budget formulation and control,
• financial management and performance at agency level,
• management and accounting frameworks at the operational level,
• risk management,
• accountability and audit.

Lectures are presented by ANU academics in the field of public management and by former or present senior public officials.

On completion of the course, students are expected:

• to have a clear understanding of the conceptual framework of the Australian governmental system as it impacts on the roles and responsibilities of managers of public resources;
• to appreciate the influences on managers of public resources so that they can question and critique, against the conceptual framework, the effectiveness of the managerial setting, which operates across Australian governments;
• to understand the methods, roles and relevance of the broad systems applicable in the Australian governmental system relating to budgeting, financial management, accounting and audit; and
• to gain the capacity, in their current or future roles as managers, to influence the management environment in order to make financial management more effective.

Assessment for the course consists of two written assignments, a short one to be written after the first three-day session and a long one due two weeks after the completion of the course.    The short assignment will be 1500 words in length and worth 30% of the course assessment.  The long assignment will be 3000 words in length and worth 70% of the course assessment. 

The short assignment will be based only on material presented and discussed during the first three days.  In the long assignment, all course material will be relevant to the coverage expected of assignments.

Both assignments will involve a choice of topics that will be provided to students on the first day of each segment of the course. 

In both assignments, students will be expected to present critical arguments relating to the theoretical and institutional setting influencing the management of government finances.

Class contact is for 30 hours over six days.  Classes are held in two three-day sessions about three weeks apart.  Students are expected to read the material supplied in the brick and, desirably, additional material provided for the course on WebCT.  Essential reading and essay writing are the only obligations on outside-class time.

Delivery Mode:

On Campus. 

The course will be delivered in First Semester in 2009 and will include class discussions, in plenary or workgroups, based on case studies and examples.  It will be delivered in lecture form at the Sir Roland Wilson Building in the Crawford School.