By Mike Thatcher
19 November 2009
Finance directors face the ‘challenge of a lifetime’ in dealing with the public sector funding crisis, the Welsh Assembly Government’s permanent secretary has warned.
Dame Gill Morgan suggested that public servants will have to prepare for an unprecedented reduction in cash funding, which she estimated at £1.4bn a year in Wales.
She said that finance directors would be crucial in helping the sector survive the impending budget cuts.
‘Where innovative things happen, where transformation really appears, in every case one of the enabling factors has been a clever, focused director of finance,’ she told delegates at the annual CIPFA in Wales conference in the Vale of Glamorgan on November 18.
‘You are absolutely critical because the more you fall into the default mode of non-imagination and of protection, the harder it will be to take money out in ways that affect citizens the least.’
Morgan said that finance directors and other public sector managers should not operate in silos. By ceding some of their autonomy, they could help to improve services while also saving money. ‘If all of us try to control what we can and let nobody have anything of ours, then we’ll end up controlling nothing,’ she claimed.
The permanent secretary was speaking as the All Wales Convention announced its recommendations on extending the powers of the Welsh Assembly.
Speaking to Public Finance after her speech, Morgan said that if the convention’s advice was accepted following a referendum in Wales, then ministers and civil servants would be able to operate in a more cross-cutting way.
This would enable them to publish Bills in areas such as public health, which currently require difficult negotiations with Whitehall departments.
‘[An empowered Assembly] would save time, save money, save resources and actually have a better impact on allowing us to do things that would make a difference.’
Other speakers at the conference included: Jeremy Colman, the auditor general for Wales, and Sue Essex, the former Welsh Assembly Government finance minister.
19 November 2009
Finance directors face the ‘challenge of a lifetime’ in dealing with the public sector funding crisis, the Welsh Assembly Government’s permanent secretary has warned.
Dame Gill Morgan suggested that public servants will have to prepare for an unprecedented reduction in cash funding, which she estimated at £1.4bn a year in Wales.
She said that finance directors would be crucial in helping the sector survive the impending budget cuts.
‘Where innovative things happen, where transformation really appears, in every case one of the enabling factors has been a clever, focused director of finance,’ she told delegates at the annual CIPFA in Wales conference in the Vale of Glamorgan on November 18.
‘You are absolutely critical because the more you fall into the default mode of non-imagination and of protection, the harder it will be to take money out in ways that affect citizens the least.’
Morgan said that finance directors and other public sector managers should not operate in silos. By ceding some of their autonomy, they could help to improve services while also saving money. ‘If all of us try to control what we can and let nobody have anything of ours, then we’ll end up controlling nothing,’ she claimed.
The permanent secretary was speaking as the All Wales Convention announced its recommendations on extending the powers of the Welsh Assembly.
Speaking to Public Finance after her speech, Morgan said that if the convention’s advice was accepted following a referendum in Wales, then ministers and civil servants would be able to operate in a more cross-cutting way.
This would enable them to publish Bills in areas such as public health, which currently require difficult negotiations with Whitehall departments.
‘[An empowered Assembly] would save time, save money, save resources and actually have a better impact on allowing us to do things that would make a difference.’
Other speakers at the conference included: Jeremy Colman, the auditor general for Wales, and Sue Essex, the former Welsh Assembly Government finance minister.
