Defence

Chief Finance Officer

Skilling - not just training

It is no secret that Defence faces significant financial management challenges.

These culminated last year when the Secretary was unable to form an opinion on the accuracy of Defence's financial statements.

In response to these challenges Defence is introducing sweeping changes to the way it manages its finances. These changes will impose greater accountability on all staff including senior leaders and middle managers. But Defence can't enforce this responsibility without adequately 'up skilling' existing staff and recruiting experienced and appropriately trained new employees.

On the surface, recruiting more skilled staff may appear simple enough, but recruiting new people to Defence is only one side of the coin.

In a statement to a parliamentary committee in May, the CFO identified skills as one of the key elements of financial reform. Defence must be satisfied, he said, that before somebody goes into a key resource management position, they have the right skills, experience and training so that they can discharge those functions properly.

A focus on skilling ensures that Defence personnel understand and are equipped to follow standardised processes in order to achieve the right outcome for the organisation, as distinct from an over-emphasis on specific task commands within a particular IT system or application.

Emily O'Brien from CFO and Gabby Harrold from DPE are just two of 31 Defence members who recently graduated from the Diploma of Government Financial Management (DoGFM) and the Diploma of Government course.

Emily has taken the opportunities presented to her and found the motivation to do the DoGFM course through a variety of avenues. "My supervisor had previously completed the Diploma and recommended it, you could say I was positively pushed," she said.

"Also, I didn't go to university and wanted the challenge. It was a great opportunity to get a qualification.

"I recommend the course to others. I really, really enjoyed it. I actually miss doing it this year. The facilitators really focused on Defence and covered a whole range of things [from contract law to government legislation and accrual accounting] relevant to our jobs."

Emily is currently building on this qualification and is now undertaking a Graduate Certificate in Accounting through Southern Cross University.

Gabby Harrold is also currently studying for the Graduate Certificate in Accounting with the DoGFM and has accrual accounting courses already under her belt.

Gabby began her financial management studies when she moved into a finance role in DPE. "I thought the accrual accounting course would help me understand current financial procedures and enable me to assist others to come to grips with these practices.

"I found both courses to be very interesting. The lecturers were excellent and made it very easy to get back into study. It was very much an adult learning style that was conducive to learning. A lot of emphasis was placed on networking which has certainly helped with my work."

As a supervisor herself, Gabby is continuing in this vein and encouraging her staff to undertake the accrual accounting and DoGFM courses.

The courses offered by the Defence Business Training Centre are part of a toolbox aimed at addressing the financial management skilling shortage. However the major improvements necessary in Defence's financial management can only happen if staff are prepared to 'open the box'.

Business skilling will contribute both to the immediate need to remediate the financial statements and to ensuring we have the skills to extract maximum value from the resources Government allocates to Defence.

Improvements and enhancements underway include:

• the introduction of e-learning packages;
• upgrading the financial management system (ROMAN) courses to allow staff to become job-ready more quickly;
• reinvigorating financial and associated business management courses to make them more relevant to Defence's specific context; and
• the introduction of SES and EL2/COL (E) financial management courses.

For further information on internal and external financial courses including the Diploma of Government Financial Management and accrual accounting please visit the Defence Business Training Centre website at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/dpebesd/.

For further information on business skilling including the SES and EL2 financial management courses, please contact Trevor Warren on 02 6265 5917 or Craig Ivearch on 02 6265 6423.

Future editions of Defence magazine will showcase some of the new and improved 'up skilling' options, and also highlight some of the achievements of people who are taking the opportunity to move forward and address other skilling issues.

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