Authors: Noeline Slogrove, Associate Director at Altimax, (B Com, MBA, Post-Graduate Diploma in Risk Management, F.Inst.Dir, IRMSA member), and Annalien Carstens, Managing Director at Altimax (MCom, CA(SA), RA, Chartered Tax Advisor)
It is here! The Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit & Risk Officers (CIGFARO) is proud to launch the latest version of the CIGFARO HANDBOOK.
The CIGFARO HANDBOOK plays a vital part in fulfilling the role of the Institute. This handbook furthers the interests of the public sector in the financial and related professions by advancing its members’ knowledge. It also supports the interests of finance and related professionals in the public sector through developing and implementing practical guidelines, process enhancements and best practices and enhancing the available core body of knowledge.
The CIGFARO HANDBOOK serves as a reference guide to financial management practitioners supplemented by electronic training material to ensure the latest technology is available to CIGFARO members and the public sector in general.
Challenges in the public sector led the CIGFARO Board in 2021 to commission the update of the handbook with a modern approach. Reports by the Auditor-General frequently mention governance issues as a root cause of financial performance issues in the local government sector. Practitioners and professionals need to uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct to be transparent and accountable stewards of public funds.
The local government sector also faces severe challenges relating to attracting and retaining skilled professionals. This challenge requires developing officials with practical skills in addition to academic qualifications. Practitioners should also have the scope to learn and grow to enable them to advance in their careers.
Modernisation of the local government sector and financial reforms necessitate changes in legislation over the last few years.
In response to the challenges, the CIGFARO Board appointed Altimax in 2021 for a two-year project to update the handbook with a modern approach. Several subject matter experts were involved in the development of this comprehensive publication. Danie de Lange, Annette van Schalkwyk, Noeline Slogrove, Annalien Carstens and Erna Verryne contributed as authors and/or quality reviewers. Current and past Board members added their review comments to ensure that the CIGFARO Handbook met their exacting standards.
The handbook provides practical guidance aimed at capacitating interns, junior officials and middle management. With the handbook, a revised logbook was also developed to assist young professionals as they make their journey from junior members to Chartered Government Finance officers. The handbook provides a standard layout with an introduction, legislation, practical implementation and relevant court cases for each subject matter. Practitioners can download and customise practical examples and templates. The 2022 version of the handbook also contains all the latest legislative requirements.
SAQA unit standards contained in the MFMA Minimum Competency Regulations that apply to the subject matter allow personal development from both a practical perspective as well as compliance with the training requirements. Each topic includes the relevant unit standards as an annexure.
Professionalism also means continuous learning to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field. The handbook contains the membership and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) requirements of CIGFARO.
The content of the new handbook is as follows:
- Chapter 1 – Municipal governance and ethics
- Chapter 2 – Strategic planning
- Chapter 3 – Budgeting
- Chapter 4 – Financial management
- Chapter 5 – Annual financial statements
- Chapter 6 – Annual report
- Chapter 7 – Supervision and performance management
- Chapter 8 – Working towards and maintaining professionalism
The eight chapters cover topics relevant to the local government sector and practitioners in the sector. Chapter 1 covers topics such as municipal governance and ethics, legislative compliance, a comprehensive listing of municipal powers and functions, including public-private partnerships, intergovernmental relations, fiscal powers and functions, ethics, governance (King IV principles), risk management and a useful annexure with compliance and reporting checklists.
Chapter 2 contains details about integrated development planning, service delivery budget implementation plans, including guidance on setting targets and developing technical indicator descriptions.
Chapter 3 is devoted to budgeting.
Chapter 4 is crammed with information on financial management topics such as mSCOA, internal control including information, communication and technology controls, routine accounting transactions, revenue, assets and expenditure management, supply chain management, cash and investment management and in-year reporting.
Chapter 5 simplifies annual financial statements with guidance on generally recognised accounting standards (GRAP), illustrative mSCOA annual financial statements as per National Treasury guidance, the audit process, audit reports and the audit action plan.
Chapter 6 reveals valuable details of performance information and the annual report.
Chapter 7 on supervision and performance management provides the perspective on the system of delegations and the cascading of performance agreements and performance management.
Chapter 8 supports members working towards and maintaining professionalism. It contains the revised logbook, MFMA minimum competency requirements, CIGFARO membership levels and qualification criteria, and CIGFARO CPD requirements.
The handbook will be published as an electronic document to increase accessibility and save costs and natural resources in line with CIGFARO’s sustainability goals. With the new handbook, CIGFARO also embarked on a series of training programmes. Members can look forward to webinars and training sessions that supplement the contents of the handbook. These interactive sessions allow practitioners to engage on the topics with experts and peers in a conducive learning environment.
With this version of the CIGFARO Handbook, the 2021 CIGFARO Board under the leadership of Mr Peet du Plessis took a significant step on the journey of continuous improvement, leaving a legacy that the 2022 Board under the president Ms Cheryl Reddy is carrying into the future.
Please contact the CIGFARO office to obtain a copy of the CIGFARO Handbook to assist you in meeting the financial management challenges of the future.
