Financial Management for Local Government

Kay Spearman is President of Spearman, Welch & Associates, Inc. (formerly The Resource Center), and has more than 25 years' experience in local government finance. He was Senior Municipal Financial Specialist for an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) USAID project in Indonesia, and co-authored a guide entitled, Building Organizational Capacity: Developing and Managing Financial Resources, which will be published by UNCHS (Habitat). UN-HABITAT [the UN Programme for Human Settlements] is the leading provider of research and training for municipal governments around the world.

• Volume 1: Creating A Financial Framework Financial policies, planning and citizen participation are cross-cutting topics that imingpact all aspects of local government decision-making. This volume provides decision makers with a basic financial foundation and will be especially useful for policy makers and chief executive officers. Sections: Financial Policy Making; Financial Planning; Citizen Participation; Evaluating Financial Condition Volume 2: Managing the Operating Budget The short-term operating budget and long-term capital investment plans are the engines that drive local government. The operating budget is the primary mechanism for providing public services and demonstrating accountability for decisions made during the budget process. More technical in nature than volume 1, many of the more basic ideas will be of use to policy makers, while the advanced concepts are written principally for chief executive officers, finance managers and department heads. Sections: Operating Budget; Financing the Operating Budget Volume 3: Managing the Capital Investment Plan Highlighting citizen participation, transparency and accountability, this volume describes how to design and implement a capital investment planning and budgeting system, with a more advanced section dealing with value management and real estate analysis. It also examines how the financing for the investment plan is developed and implemented, reviews the benefits of instituting a debt management program, looks at types of financing, methods for selecting credit instruments and the mechanics for obtaining financing, as well as reviewing credit analysis, disclosure requirements and administration of the debt. Sections: Capital Investment Plan; Financing the Capital Investment Plan Volume 4: Managing Performance This final volume reviews four of the cornerstones of good governance: accounting, performance measures, asset management and procurement. Basic sections cover fundamental, need-to-know information for policy makers, accompanied by more advanced technical treatment for financial managers and CEOs. Sections: Accounting; Performance Measures; Asset Management; Procurement.