Hello and welcome to this month’s newsletter. I hope you are safe and well, wherever you are in the world.

What have I been doing this month?

February was busy with courses. I delivered some virtual training to a number of people who work in Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. My sessions were complemented by another teacher delivering his sessions from Kenya and the delegates having free access to the online course I created last year for ABMC. I think blended learning which mixes online, asynchronous material with live sessions (whether in person or by video conference) is going to stay around after the pandemic has ended.

The programmes I have been working on with FreeBalance are ready. I’m just waiting to hear when the launch date is.

I have agreed with the Civil Service College to deliver a one-day, online, course that is an introduction to local government finance. The course is in June. It’s aimed at councillors and staff who have newly joined a local council. If you are interested you can learn more here.

Public financial management in the news

Here are some articles related to public financial management that I have spotted in the last few weeks.

Transparency International launched their 2020 update of the Corruption Perceptions Index. Transparency International are committed to stopping bribery and corruption because of the damage it does, especially to poor people in lower income countries. The Index is a tool for bringing the issue to the attention of the world, highlighting countries with good practice (such as New Zealand) as well as those who could improve. You can read the headlines and download lots of material from here.

I am trying not to mention COVID-19 in these newletters, but sometimes I just have to. The World Bank blog recently had an article entitled Five Tools for Reducing Corruption During COVID-19. One of those tools was, of course, improved transparency.

Talking of improved transparency, Australia has launched a new and improved platform for accessing government data. Read about it in this IMF blog.

If you happen to be working as an accountant in the public sector you might well be involved in the production of your organisation’s annual report and accounts. Recently the UK’s National Audit Office published a report, Good Practice in Annual Reports. This guide includes good practice principles and examples from public sector organisations.

Lastly, here’s an interview with Djaffar Shalchi, a very rich man who wants people like himself to pay more taxes. In the interview Djaffar says:

“Wealth is like manure: spread it, and it makes everything grow; pile it up, and it stinks.”