Hello from the Peak District

I hope you remain safe and well as your country finds its way out of their lockdown arrangements. 

What have I been doing since the last newsletter?

August is, normally, when I have my annual holiday. This year is not normal but I did manage to spend some time not working even though it was not practical to travel anywhere.

I have done some work, too. As well as some projects for the ACCA I began working on a new direction: coaching courses. I will write more about this next month but my intention is not specifically about accounting or financial management. Instead, I plan to help people with writing about money or making presentations about financial matters. If you are interested about either of these topics send me an email because we might be able to agree a special deal.

Lastly, I have spent some time making small improvements to the CPFMA course, including adding short quizzes at the end of each of the ten module. 

Online courses

The online public financial management course I created with ABMC International is still available. Click here to register for it.

If you want to check out the course before buying you can get a free taster of the first module at the same link.

There are other courses available, some of them for free, here. Check them out!

Public financial management in the news

I have mentioned the idea of universal basic income before. Finland has been running a trial and now there is an evaluation report showing that it improves employment and well-being. 

Here is a BBC story about how a spreadsheet error delayed the opening of a £150m hospital. The mistake was not about money but about air flow but that’s not to say that they, and you, might benefit from my financial modelling online course.

One of the ACCA projects I made a (small) contribution to is a report that was recently published: Sustainable public finances through Covid-19 

I don’t want all the news to be about COVID-19 but I did see a story on the Lonely Planet website about how the Caribbean island of Anguilla is seeking to tempt people who are about to be remote workers to move there. The Anguilla government will be charging a such temporary immigrants a fee ($3,000 for a family of four for a year).

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard the phrase “taxpayers’ money” used in the media and perhaps you’ve used it yourself. Here is a short video explaining that public money does not belong to taxpayers and we should refer to it as government money.

Here is a TED talk about participatory budgeting by the executive director of the Participatory Budgeting Project.

Marc Robinson is a public financial management consultant who has written a new book, Bigger Government: The Future of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies He has released a two-episode podcast explaining the themes of the book. You can find out more about the book at https://biggergovernment.com/

The UK’s whole of government accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 have just been published.