Guidelines for designing a training programme for officials in the financial management category in the South African Public Service

Abstract

The promulgation of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999), shifted the emphasis away from a rule driven and highly centralised system of expenditure control to the management of public financial resources by the head of a department. This change brought about new training priorities and it is required from public officials to develop the necessary skills and competencies to manage public finances effectively. The development of new skills and competencies created opportunities for training providers to offer training programmes, but due to a lack of knowledge regarding the training needs, providers are offering training programmes, which do not meet the financial management requirements of the public sector. Furthermore the training programmes are also offered in an unco-ordinated manner. In this article attention is devoted to the effect of a co-ordinated training programme. Due to the poor human resource development, which was inherited from the former regime and which is not only fragmented but lacks co-ordination, a process of identifying the training needs in public financial management and an analysis and interpretation of the survey undertaken, is proposed. Finally, to ensure that the government receives value for money the article suggests an approach to be followed in the designing of a co-ordinated training programme.