Course Introduction
Effective public financial management is fundamental to fiscal discipline, responsible resource allocation, transparent public service delivery, and institutional accountability. This course provides an advanced framework for strengthening public financial management, financial control, auditing, performance oversight, and accountability across government institutions, public entities, and publicly funded programmes. It connects budget management, public accounting, procurement, revenue, expenditure, audit, and governance into one integrated framework.
The course examines the complete public finance cycle from policy and fiscal planning through budgeting, resource allocation, commitment, procurement, expenditure, accounting, reporting, audit, and legislative or oversight review. Participants will evaluate how weaknesses at one stage of the cycle can affect financial discipline, service delivery, compliance, and public accountability. Emphasis is placed on risk-based management, effective internal controls, reliable financial information, and evidence-based decision-making.
Participants will develop advanced capabilities in public sector budgeting, medium-term financial planning, cash and commitment management, expenditure control, public procurement, revenue administration, debt management, asset stewardship, and financial reporting. The course also examines the role of accounting officers, finance departments, internal audit functions, external audit institutions, oversight bodies, and management committees in establishing effective accountability arrangements.
Public sector auditing is addressed through financial, compliance, performance, systems, and risk-based approaches. Participants will learn how to assess financial statements, internal controls, budget execution, procurement transactions, public assets, grants, transfers, projects, and programme performance. They will also examine audit evidence, materiality, risk assessment, findings, recommendations, follow-up, and the relationship between audit results and institutional improvement.
The programme places strong emphasis on accountability, transparency, fraud risk, data analytics, digital public finance systems, and emerging risks. Participants will explore how financial management information systems, electronic procurement, automated controls, data analytics, and digital reporting can strengthen public financial oversight while also creating new risks involving access, data integrity, cybersecurity, system configuration, and technology dependency.
Through practical exercises and an integrated case study, participants will assess a public entity's financial management environment, analyze budget and expenditure information, evaluate controls, conduct audit procedures, identify accountability gaps, and develop improvement recommendations. The course is designed to strengthen practical public finance capabilities while supporting sound stewardship of public resources, transparent reporting, and effective institutional accountability.
Duration
10 days
Who Should Attend
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Public sector finance directors, chief financial officers, and heads of finance.
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Government accountants responsible for public sector accounting and financial reporting.
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Internal auditors working within ministries, departments, agencies, and public entities.
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External and public sector auditors conducting financial and compliance audits.
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Budget officers responsible for planning, allocation, execution, and monitoring.
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Treasury and cash management professionals working in public finance institutions.
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Procurement and contract management professionals responsible for public expenditure controls.
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Public sector risk and compliance professionals supporting financial governance.
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Accounting officers and senior managers responsible for public resource stewardship.
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Programme and project managers managing publicly funded programmes and capital projects.
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Revenue administration professionals responsible for public revenue collection and control.
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Public investment and asset management professionals overseeing government resources.
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Parliamentary, legislative, or institutional oversight and accountability professionals.
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Development finance and donor-funded programme financial management professionals.
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Senior government and public entity professionals seeking advanced PFM, audit, and accountability capabilities.
Course Objectives
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Develop advanced knowledge of public financial management principles and their relationship with fiscal discipline, service delivery, audit, and accountability.
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Evaluate the complete public finance cycle from fiscal planning and budgeting through expenditure, accounting, reporting, audit, and oversight.
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Strengthen public sector budgeting, medium-term financial planning, resource allocation, budget execution, and expenditure monitoring capabilities.
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Assess internal control systems covering revenue, expenditure, procurement, payroll, assets, cash management, grants, and financial reporting.
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Apply risk-based financial, compliance, performance, and systems auditing approaches within public sector institutions.
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Evaluate the reliability, completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of public sector financial information and management reporting.
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Identify fraud, corruption, waste, unauthorized expenditure, procurement irregularities, financial mismanagement, and accountability risks.
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Assess public procurement, contract management, supplier payments, project expenditure, and capital investment controls.
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Evaluate public revenue administration, collection processes, reconciliation procedures, arrears, leakages, and revenue accountability.
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Apply data analytics and digital audit techniques to public financial transactions, budget execution, procurement, payroll, and expenditure data.
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Develop evidence-based audit findings, recommendations, management responses, follow-up procedures, and accountability reporting.
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Build an integrated PFM, audit, and accountability framework that supports fiscal responsibility, transparency, effective controls, and improved public resource management.
Comprehensive Course Outline
Module 1: Foundations of Advanced Public Financial Management
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Examine the principles, objectives, institutional structures, and core components of modern public financial management.
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Understand relationships among fiscal policy, budgeting, public expenditure, revenue, accounting, reporting, auditing, and accountability.
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Identify major public financial risks affecting fiscal discipline, service delivery, public resources, and institutional performance.
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Establish an integrated PFM framework connecting financial management, internal controls, audit, governance, oversight, and accountability.
Module 2: Fiscal Governance, Public Finance Strategy and Institutional Accountability
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Evaluate fiscal governance structures, financial responsibilities, accountability arrangements, and institutional roles within the public sector.
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Assess fiscal rules, expenditure frameworks, financial policies, delegated authority, and management accountability mechanisms.
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Examine relationships among finance ministries, treasury functions, spending agencies, oversight institutions, audit bodies, and legislative authorities.
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Identify governance weaknesses involving unclear responsibilities, ineffective oversight, weak controls, and inadequate financial accountability.
Module 3: Public Budgeting and Medium-Term Financial Planning
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Examine budget formulation, medium-term expenditure frameworks, fiscal forecasting, resource allocation, and strategic budgeting processes.
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Assess budget assumptions, revenue forecasts, expenditure ceilings, programme priorities, and links between policy and financial resources.
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Evaluate budget credibility through analysis of approved budgets, revisions, execution rates, reallocations, commitments, and actual expenditure.
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Develop audit and assurance procedures for identifying weaknesses in budget preparation, approval, execution, monitoring, and reporting.
Module 4: Budget Execution, Commitment and Expenditure Control
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Examine commitment controls, expenditure authorization, payment processes, cash availability, and budget execution monitoring.
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Evaluate systems for preventing unauthorized commitments, overspending, arrears accumulation, duplicate payments, and expenditure outside approved purposes.
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Analyze expenditure variances, supplementary budgets, virements, reallocations, commitments, and payment backlogs.
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Develop control and audit procedures for testing expenditure legality, authorization, classification, accuracy, completeness, and budget compliance.
Module 5: Public Revenue Management and Collection Assurance
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Assess revenue forecasting, assessment, collection, recording, banking, reconciliation, arrears management, and revenue reporting processes.
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Identify revenue leakage, unauthorized waivers, weak collection controls, unrecorded receipts, delayed banking, and reconciliation differences.
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Evaluate automated and manual controls supporting tax, fees, licenses, charges, fines, grants, and other public revenue streams.
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Apply analytical procedures to identify unusual revenue trends, collection gaps, concentration risks, and unexplained variances.
Module 6: Public Procurement and Contract Financial Management
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Examine public procurement planning, tendering, evaluation, contract award, contract administration, payment, and supplier performance controls.
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Identify procurement risks involving conflicts of interest, non-competitive practices, contract splitting, inflated pricing, fictitious suppliers, and unauthorized variations.
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Evaluate contract financial controls covering commitments, milestones, invoices, retention, advances, variations, and final payments.
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Develop audit procedures linking procurement records, contracts, purchase orders, goods received, invoices, payments, and accounting records.
Module 7: Public Payroll, Human Resources and Employee Expenditure
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Evaluate payroll controls covering employee records, appointments, salary changes, allowances, deductions, overtime, benefits, and termination.
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Identify ghost employees, duplicate personnel records, unauthorized payments, inappropriate allowances, and payroll master-file weaknesses.
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Reconcile payroll records with human resource systems, attendance information, establishment records, bank payments, and accounting data.
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Develop analytical tests for identifying unusual payroll trends, duplicate payments, inactive employees, rapid changes, and unexplained personnel expenditure.
Module 8: Public Assets, Inventory and Resource Stewardship
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Assess controls over property, plant, equipment, infrastructure, vehicles, inventory, stores, and other public assets.
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Evaluate asset acquisition, registration, custody, utilization, maintenance, depreciation, impairment, transfer, disposal, and physical verification processes.
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Identify risks involving asset loss, unauthorized use, incomplete records, obsolete inventory, unsupported disposals, and inaccurate valuations.
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Develop audit procedures reconciling physical assets, asset registers, procurement records, accounting balances, maintenance information, and disposal documentation.
Module 9: Public Sector Accounting, Financial Reporting and Consolidation
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Examine public sector accounting processes, chart of accounts, transaction recording, reconciliations, period-end procedures, and financial statement preparation.
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Assess the completeness, accuracy, classification, cutoff, and consistency of public financial information across accounting systems and reporting entities.
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Evaluate consolidation processes involving ministries, departments, agencies, public funds, programmes, and other reporting units.
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Develop audit procedures for identifying material misstatements, unsupported balances, unreconciled accounts, disclosure weaknesses, and reporting inconsistencies.
Module 10: Public Internal Controls, Risk Management and Internal Audit
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Evaluate internal control frameworks covering financial, operational, compliance, information technology, and governance risks.
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Assess risk identification, risk assessment, control design, control operation, monitoring, remediation, and management accountability.
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Examine the role of internal audit in providing independent assurance over financial management, risk management, controls, and governance.
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Develop risk-based internal audit plans aligned with material public financial risks, institutional objectives, budget execution, and accountability priorities.
Module 11: Public Sector External Audit and Audit Evidence
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Examine financial, compliance, performance, systems, and value-for-money audit approaches used in public sector assurance.
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Assess audit risk, materiality, assertions, sampling, analytical procedures, substantive testing, control testing, and evidence sufficiency.
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Evaluate evidence from financial records, procurement files, contracts, physical verification, system data, confirmations, inspections, and management explanations.
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Develop well-supported audit findings that clearly connect criteria, condition, cause, effect, evidence, recommendations, and management responses.
Module 12: Fraud, Corruption, Waste and Financial Misconduct Risks
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Identify common public sector fraud risks involving procurement, payroll, revenue, grants, cash, assets, projects, contracts, and financial reporting.
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Assess corruption and conflict-of-interest risks associated with public procurement, licensing, contracting, recruitment, and resource allocation.
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Apply data analytics and control testing to identify unusual transactions, duplicate payments, related-party relationships, suspicious suppliers, and expenditure anomalies.
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Develop appropriate investigation, escalation, documentation, recovery, remediation, and follow-up procedures for identified financial irregularities.
Module 13: Public Investment, Projects, Grants and Programme Expenditure
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Evaluate financial management of infrastructure projects, development programmes, public investments, grants, subsidies, and externally funded activities.
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Assess project budgets, contracts, disbursements, milestones, expenditure eligibility, cost overruns, variations, and project completion.
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Examine grant management controls covering eligibility, approvals, transfers, beneficiary accountability, reporting, monitoring, and recovery of unsupported amounts.
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Develop audit procedures linking programme objectives, financial resources, implementation evidence, expenditure, outputs, and reported performance.
Module 14: Digital Public Financial Management and Data Analytics
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Examine financial management information systems, electronic procurement, digital payments, automated reporting, and integrated government finance platforms.
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Evaluate access controls, segregation of duties, system configurations, interfaces, audit trails, data integrity, and automated financial controls.
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Apply data analytics to budget execution, procurement, payroll, revenue, payments, suppliers, assets, and other public financial transaction populations.
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Develop continuous monitoring approaches for identifying anomalies, control exceptions, unusual spending patterns, and emerging public financial risks.
Module 15: Performance, Accountability, Transparency and Emerging PFM Risks
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Examine performance-based budgeting, value-for-money considerations, public accountability, transparency, citizen reporting, and institutional performance.
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Evaluate whether financial resources are linked effectively to programmes, outputs, outcomes, service delivery, and strategic priorities.
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Assess emerging risks involving digital finance, climate-related public expenditure, fiscal pressures, public-private partnerships, cybersecurity, and complex financing.
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Develop advanced accountability and assurance strategies integrating financial information, performance data, risk analysis, audit results, and management action.
Module 16: Integrated Public Financial Management, Audit and Accountability Case Study
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Conduct an end-to-end assessment of a public institution covering budgeting, revenue, procurement, expenditure, payroll, assets, accounting, controls, and reporting.
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Analyze public financial transaction data to identify budget variances, unusual expenditures, procurement anomalies, revenue gaps, payroll exceptions, and control weaknesses.
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Perform integrated audit procedures and develop evidence-based findings addressing financial compliance, internal controls, performance, fraud risks, and accountability.
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Prepare a comprehensive PFM audit and accountability report with recommendations, management actions, follow-up measures, and institutional improvement priorities.
Training Approach
This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.
Tailor-Made Course
This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808
Training Venue
The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.
Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant
Certification
Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.
Airport Pickup and Accommodation
Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808
Terms of Payment:
Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.
