Managing Government Finances

This course is available for on-campus & remote (online) learning. All students participate in interactive, real-time classes. This course surveys key concepts and frameworks, institutions, processes and techniques of contemporary public financial management (PFM), with a special focus on the expenditure budget process. PFM frameworks and practices permeate the systems, rules and information that govern the everyday decision-making and accountabilities of public officials. The course investigates public officials’ roles in managing and accounting for public resources, and the political and administrative setting in which priorities for public spending are negotiated and determined. The course will concentrate on the Australian system of government with coverage of contemporary evidence-based resource allocation and management practices, and policy development and evaluation approaches. Where appropriate, this will be complemented by relevant international and/or comparative experience, This is a course principally on the politics, institutions, practices, and policy impacts of public budgeting and resource management. It is not a course on public finance, public economics, or public accounting. No previous knowledge of finance, economics, or accounting is assumed. This course will explore the application of key concepts and practices through case studies and scenario-based syndicate learning exercises. It will provide students with tools to understand and critically appraise the effectiveness of contemporary PFM practices in the context of prevailing approaches to public administration, public policy, and governance.