Public Financial Management and Fiscal Governance Training Course

Course Introduction

Effective public financial management is essential for ensuring that public resources are mobilized, allocated, controlled, and utilized efficiently to achieve national, regional, and institutional development priorities. The Public Financial Management and Fiscal Governance Training Course provides participants with advanced knowledge and practical capabilities for strengthening fiscal discipline, budget management, financial accountability, public expenditure control, and sustainable public-sector financial performance.

The course examines the complete public financial management cycle, from fiscal policy formulation and revenue forecasting through budget preparation, resource allocation, expenditure execution, accounting, reporting, audit, and evaluation. Participants will explore how governments and public institutions can establish integrated financial systems that improve transparency, accountability, service delivery, resource utilization, and alignment between public expenditure and development objectives.

Fiscal governance is examined as a critical framework for ensuring that public financial decisions are made responsibly, transparently, and within appropriate institutional and legal structures. Participants will examine fiscal rules, public accountability, institutional responsibilities, financial oversight, debt sustainability, fiscal risks, intergovernmental transfers, and governance mechanisms that support responsible management of public resources and strengthen public confidence.

The programme also addresses practical approaches to public budgeting and expenditure management. Participants will explore medium-term expenditure frameworks, programme-based budgeting, performance-informed budgeting, cash and commitment controls, public investment management, procurement expenditure, payroll management, and expenditure monitoring. Emphasis is placed on improving the quality of spending while maintaining fiscal discipline and supporting effective delivery of public services.

Modern public financial management is increasingly influenced by digital transformation, data analytics, transparency initiatives, climate-related fiscal pressures, public-sector innovation, and changing expectations for accountability. The course therefore considers digital public finance systems, automated financial controls, fiscal data analytics, open-budget initiatives, climate-responsive budgeting, public financial risks, and emerging technologies that can strengthen fiscal management and governance.

By completing the course, participants will be better equipped to contribute to effective public financial management reforms, strengthen fiscal governance frameworks, improve budget credibility, manage public expenditure, and enhance financial accountability. The programme integrates strategic fiscal management, budgeting, revenue and expenditure management, public investment, financial reporting, audit, risk management, digitalization, and emerging public-sector issues to support sustainable and responsible management of public resources.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Senior Government Officials

• Finance Directors, Directors of Finance, and Heads of Public Finance

• Government Budget Officers and Public Expenditure Management Professionals

• Treasury Officials and Public Debt Management Professionals

• Economists and Fiscal Policy Analysts

• Public-Sector Accountants and Financial Reporting Professionals

• Internal Auditors and Government Audit Professionals

• Public Procurement and Contract Management Officials

• Revenue Administration and Tax Management Professionals

• Planning and Development Officers

• Local Government and County Government Finance Officials

• Public Investment and Infrastructure Finance Professionals

• Parliamentary Budget, Finance, and Public Accounts Committee Staff

• Risk, Compliance, Governance, and Public Accountability Professionals

• Consultants and advisors supporting public financial management and fiscal reform programmes

Course Objectives

• Develop advanced knowledge of public financial management principles and apply them to fiscal planning, budgeting, expenditure management, accountability, and sustainable public-sector performance.

• Understand the institutional, legal, policy, and governance frameworks that determine how public resources are mobilized, allocated, controlled, reported, and evaluated.

• Strengthen public budgeting capabilities through effective fiscal forecasting, medium-term planning, resource allocation, expenditure prioritization, and budget formulation techniques.

• Apply expenditure-management techniques that improve budget execution, commitment control, cash management, expenditure efficiency, and alignment with approved public-sector priorities.

• Develop practical approaches for strengthening fiscal discipline while ensuring that public expenditure contributes effectively to economic development, social outcomes, and quality public services.

• Examine public revenue-management systems and identify opportunities to improve revenue forecasting, collection efficiency, compliance, administration, and sustainable domestic resource mobilization.

• Strengthen public financial reporting and accounting practices to improve transparency, reliability, accountability, financial oversight, and confidence in government financial information.

• Apply fiscal-risk management techniques to identify and manage risks arising from public debt, state-owned enterprises, guarantees, public-private partnerships, contingent liabilities, and economic uncertainty.

• Develop effective public investment management approaches for evaluating, prioritizing, financing, implementing, and monitoring infrastructure and development projects.

• Strengthen internal control, audit, oversight, and accountability mechanisms that prevent financial mismanagement, improve compliance, and safeguard public resources.

• Explore digital technologies, financial analytics, automation, open-government tools, and emerging innovations that can improve public financial management efficiency and transparency.

• Develop practical fiscal governance and PFM reform strategies that strengthen institutional capacity, budget credibility, accountability, resilience, sustainability, and long-term public-sector financial performance.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Public Financial Management

• Examine the principles, objectives, scope, and institutional importance of public financial management in achieving government policy and development objectives.

• Explore the relationship between fiscal policy, public budgeting, revenue mobilization, expenditure management, financial accountability, and public service delivery.

• Examine the roles and responsibilities of ministries, departments, agencies, legislatures, treasuries, audit institutions, and other public financial stakeholders.

• Identify common public financial management weaknesses and explore reform approaches for improving fiscal discipline, efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

Module 2: Fiscal Governance, Institutions and Accountability

• Examine fiscal governance principles and the institutional arrangements required for responsible, transparent, and accountable management of public resources.

• Explore fiscal rules, expenditure frameworks, legal mandates, oversight institutions, accountability mechanisms, and responsibilities across government.

• Examine the role of legislatures, supreme audit institutions, internal audit, civil society, and citizens in strengthening public financial accountability.

• Develop governance approaches that improve fiscal transparency, decision-making quality, institutional coordination, public trust, and financial responsibility.

Module 3: Fiscal Policy, Macroeconomic Frameworks and Resource Planning

• Examine the relationship between fiscal policy, economic growth, inflation, employment, public expenditure, taxation, borrowing, and national development priorities.

• Explore macroeconomic assumptions used in fiscal planning and assess their implications for government revenues, expenditures, deficits, and financing requirements.

• Develop approaches for integrating economic forecasts and fiscal objectives into sustainable public financial planning and medium-term resource allocation.

• Examine the challenges of maintaining fiscal stability during periods of economic uncertainty, inflationary pressure, recession, or external financial shocks.

Module 4: Public Budgeting and Budget Formulation

• Examine the public budgeting cycle from policy priorities and budget preparation through legislative approval, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

• Explore programme-based, performance-informed, incremental, zero-based, and other public budgeting approaches and their practical applications.

• Develop techniques for prioritizing competing expenditure demands while maintaining fiscal discipline and alignment with government development objectives.

• Examine methods for improving budget credibility, realistic forecasting, stakeholder participation, documentation, approval processes, and institutional ownership.

Module 5: Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks and Fiscal Planning

• Examine the principles and practical application of medium-term expenditure frameworks for connecting fiscal policy, strategic priorities, and annual budgets.

• Explore expenditure ceilings, sector allocations, fiscal forecasts, programme priorities, and institutional responsibilities within medium-term financial planning.

• Develop approaches for managing competing sector priorities while maintaining consistency with available fiscal resources and sustainability requirements.

• Assess how medium-term planning can improve predictability, budget discipline, programme implementation, resource allocation, and government performance.

Module 6: Public Revenue Management and Domestic Resource Mobilization

• Examine major sources of public revenue and their relationship with fiscal sustainability, development financing, and government expenditure requirements.

• Explore revenue forecasting, tax administration, compliance management, collection efficiency, non-tax revenues, and strategies for improving domestic resource mobilization.

• Identify revenue leakages, administrative inefficiencies, compliance gaps, and structural challenges that can reduce public revenue performance.

• Develop revenue-management strategies that strengthen predictability, fairness, efficiency, transparency, taxpayer confidence, and sustainable fiscal capacity.

Module 7: Public Expenditure Management and Budget Execution

• Examine the stages of public expenditure from authorization and commitment through procurement, payment, accounting, reporting, and evaluation.

• Explore commitment controls, cash controls, expenditure authorization, payment processes, arrears management, and mechanisms for preventing unauthorized spending.

• Develop expenditure-monitoring frameworks that identify implementation delays, overspending, underspending, inefficient allocations, and emerging budget execution risks.

• Assess approaches for improving expenditure efficiency while ensuring that public spending remains aligned with approved budgets, policies, and development priorities.

Module 8: Treasury, Cash Management and Public Debt

• Examine treasury management principles covering government cash balances, payment systems, liquidity planning, banking arrangements, and short-term financing requirements.

• Explore cash-flow forecasting and cash management techniques that support timely public payments and minimize unnecessary financing costs.

• Examine public debt-management principles, debt sustainability, borrowing strategies, debt servicing, refinancing risks, and exposure to interest-rate and currency movements.

• Develop integrated approaches for managing cash, borrowing, liquidity, and debt-related fiscal risks within sustainable public financial frameworks.

Module 9: Public Investment Management and Infrastructure Financing

• Examine the principles of public investment management and the processes used to identify, appraise, prioritize, finance, implement, and evaluate public projects.

• Explore economic, financial, social, environmental, and strategic criteria for assessing competing public investment proposals and infrastructure programmes.

• Examine project appraisal, cost-benefit analysis, feasibility studies, project selection, implementation monitoring, and post-investment evaluation techniques.

• Develop approaches for strengthening public investment efficiency, preventing project cost overruns, improving project delivery, and maximizing development impact.

Module 10: Public Procurement, Contract Expenditure and Financial Controls

• Examine the relationship between public procurement, expenditure management, fiscal discipline, value for money, transparency, and public accountability.

• Explore procurement planning, contract commitments, supplier payments, contract variations, procurement risks, and financial controls across public purchasing activities.

• Identify common procurement-related financial risks including overpricing, conflicts of interest, fraud, weak documentation, contract leakage, and ineffective expenditure monitoring.

• Develop integrated procurement and financial-control mechanisms that improve value for money, compliance, transparency, competition, and expenditure effectiveness.

Module 11: Public Accounting, Financial Reporting and Transparency

• Examine public-sector accounting principles and their role in producing reliable information for financial management, accountability, oversight, and decision-making.

• Explore financial statements, budget execution reports, fiscal reports, cash and accrual information, accounting standards, and reporting responsibilities.

• Develop approaches for improving financial-data quality, reconciliation, reporting timeliness, classification accuracy, and transparency across public institutions.

• Examine public financial disclosure and transparency mechanisms that enable legislatures, oversight bodies, citizens, development partners, and other stakeholders to assess fiscal performance.

Module 12: Internal Control, Internal Audit and External Oversight

• Examine public-sector internal control frameworks and their application to revenue, expenditure, payroll, procurement, assets, cash management, and financial reporting.

• Explore risk-based internal auditing techniques for identifying control weaknesses, assessing financial exposures, and improving public-sector assurance.

• Examine the role of external audit institutions in reviewing government financial management, compliance, performance, and use of public resources.

• Develop corrective-action and follow-up mechanisms that ensure audit findings are addressed and control weaknesses are converted into sustainable improvements.

Module 13: Fiscal Risk Management and Financial Resilience

• Examine fiscal risks arising from public debt, guarantees, state-owned enterprises, public-private partnerships, natural disasters, economic shocks, and contingent liabilities.

• Develop fiscal-risk registers and assessment frameworks for identifying, measuring, prioritizing, monitoring, and reporting significant government financial exposures.

• Explore stress testing, scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and fiscal forecasting techniques for assessing the impact of adverse economic and financial conditions.

• Establish fiscal-risk mitigation strategies that strengthen resilience, protect public finances, and support sustainable government decision-making under uncertainty.

Module 14: Digital Public Financial Management and Data Analytics

• Examine digital public financial management systems and their role in integrating budgeting, treasury, accounting, procurement, reporting, and expenditure controls.

• Explore financial data analytics, automated reporting, digital dashboards, artificial intelligence, and other technologies supporting evidence-based fiscal decision-making.

• Assess cybersecurity, data governance, system integration, access management, privacy, and technology continuity risks within digital public finance environments.

• Develop digital transformation strategies that improve financial visibility, process efficiency, control effectiveness, transparency, and public-sector financial accountability.

Module 15: Performance-Based Public Finance and Results Management

• Examine performance-based budgeting and approaches for connecting public resources with measurable outputs, outcomes, service improvements, and development results.

• Explore performance indicators, expenditure reviews, programme evaluation, value-for-money assessment, and results-based management techniques.

• Develop mechanisms for using financial and performance information to improve resource allocation, programme effectiveness, institutional accountability, and public service delivery.

• Establish performance-reporting frameworks that provide decision-makers with timely evidence on whether public spending is generating intended economic and social outcomes.

Module 16: Emerging Fiscal Issues and Future Public Financial Management

• Examine emerging fiscal challenges involving climate change, demographic pressures, economic volatility, digital transformation, geopolitical uncertainty, and changing public expenditure demands.

• Explore climate-responsive budgeting, green public finance, sustainable infrastructure financing, and approaches for integrating environmental risks into fiscal planning.

• Assess emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, digital currencies, automated controls, and real-time fiscal monitoring within public financial management.

• Develop future-ready PFM reform roadmaps that integrate fiscal sustainability, digital transformation, transparency, resilience, institutional capacity, accountability, and improved public value.

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.