Accounting & Business

Public sector squeeze: Accounting & Business

The coalition Government has started as it evidently means to continue – by both immediately cutting public spending and making a rash of policy commitments.  Together they amount to not only a potentially large reduction in the size of the public sector, but also a significant change in the way it is organized.
 
Immediate public spending [...]

Profile: Julia Rudrum: Accounting & Business

The View From: Julia Rudrum, Assistant Director of Assurance, NHS Brighton & Hove
 
 
 
How important is governance?
Good governance is critical to the success of any organisation – public or private.  Well governed organisations have good internal controls: mitigating risk and enhancing the prospects of corporate success.  Private sector investment becomes more attractive to shareholders: public bodies [...]

Profile: Graeme Clarke: Accounting & Business

The View From: Graeme Clarke FCCA, Director, Governance, Risk and Internal Control, Mazars LLP.
 
Do clients realise the importance of a strong internal audit function?
Yes.  For many public bodies I work with, there is a statutory requirement to have an internal audit service.  For others it is best practice.  Where clients determine their own need [...]

Profile: Sotiris Kyriacou: Accounting & Business

The View From: Sotiris Kyriacou FCCA, Head of Finance Development and Professionalism, NHS London
 
 
What is your main challenge?
 
We need the finance function to be fully engaged with finance staff development (FSD), but it has struggled with this because of time pressures and the volume and complexity of its other work.  London is unique amongst strategic [...]

Housing associations struggle through property recession: Accounting & Business

The crisis in the banking and property sectors is having many knock-on effects.  One of the most severe is in social housing, where providers have found capital receipts from sales and joint ventures slow down and in some cases almost completely dry-up.
 
Over recent years, income from sales has formed an increasingly important role in financing [...]

Profile: Ed Mayo: Accounting & Business

The view from:
Ed Mayo
Secretary General and chief executive of Co-operatives UK, the sector’s representative body
Will co-operatives be a force for the delivery of public services?
There is a growing consensus that the co-operative and mutual models will be fundamental to the delivery of public services within a short period of time.  There are two sides to [...]

Public sector cuts - a co-operative solution: Accounting & Business

“This is the biggest shift of power from government to people since the right to buy your council house in the 1980s,” said shadow chancellor George Osborne.  The grand claim was a reference to a radical proposal to transform public services by giving workers a right to convert state services into workers’ co-operatives.
 
As the Financial [...]

Public sector cuts mean tough times for accountants: Accounting & Business

The coalition government is not merely cutting public spending: it is radically and speedily reshaping the public sector.  By the end of the process, public bodies are intended to be leaner and fitter.  They will also be expected to be better at generating commercial income. 
 
For the transformation to be implemented effectively it requires active [...]

Sustainability in the public sector: Accounting & Business

Public bodies are under enormous and growing pressure to reduce their carbon emissions and to operate in an environmentally sustainably manner.  But with the gigantic fiscal deficit bearing down across the public sector, tensions are developing between the two sets of priorities.
 
One initiative that marries improved environmental performance and greater focus on costs is the [...]

Paraic Bergin profile: Accounting & Business

The view from:
 
Paraic Bergin FCCA, Regional Director, Ireland, The Alchemy Network and former chief executive of the Galway Clinic
 
 
Q.  You have worked at senior levels in the public and private sectors – what are the differences?
 
A.  Responsiveness and accountability. Private enterprise without a monopoly must respond to market pressures and change to survive. Public [...]