The realities of senior public sector finance leaders’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic are shared in a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and CA ANZ (Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand).
Published in Leading recovery: the evolving role of senior finance leadership in the public sector, attendees at various global round tables identified three major areas where the public sector faces difficulties in the years ahead: recruiting and retaining finance professionals, preparing for reducing budgets for public services and adapting to wider societal changes.
Looking back, they reveal how professional accountants led with agility to enable their organisations to support governments’ aims of saving lives and protecting livelihoods. Increased spending, streamlined decision-making processes and better integration of the finance function epitomised the work of senior finance leaders and their teams during this time.
Building on the experience of the pandemic, ACCA and CA ANZ say there are six key lessons for public sector finance leaders to focus on. They need to transform systems to build organisational resilience and make better use of data. They must rethink leadership approaches, to empower staff and provide visible leadership. And they need to ensure their organisations adapt to new ways of working to focus on purpose, then place and break down barriers.
ACCA and CA ANZ have also identified an ‘ABCD’ of skills which public sector finance leaders of the future will need to develop: adaptability, business sense, communication, and determination.
Commenting on the report, ACCA’s head of Pakistan, Assad Hameed Khan says: ‘It’s crucial to reflect on what senior public sector finance leaders, working at different levels in different countries, have learnt from the crisis and how those lessons can be applied in the future. This timely new report looks ahead to the future challenges public sector finance leaders will face and the key future skills required to succeed. Public financial management reforms in Pakistan, of which ACCA continues to be part, have been gaining momentum both in terms of existing and future public financial management systems as well as human capital development and capacity building.
This report is definitely a must-read for public sector finance leader and professionals in Pakistan.’
