Significant financial management constraints continue to face governments around the world, with new research revealing 48 per cent of public officials lack confidence in their organisation’s financial management capabilities.
The Deloitte survey of public officials from 200 government departments from 28 countries identified inadequate financial risk management as one of the challenges facing these organisations.
More than half reported that their organisation’s ability to audit its own financial accounts fell at or below the finance industry’s benchmark.
The majority (68 per cent) also said the need for updated data was an area of concern. For example, many indicated they did not have enough information to understand the full cost of delivering public services and that they lacked the appropriate data for measuring the return on investments from government programs.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu global public sector industry leader Greg Pellegrino has called on government leaders to “beef up” the finance functions within their organisations.
“There is evidence that progress is being made and we have found models around the globe that can be replicated successfully,” he said.
