FinPro Webinar – Preparing for the upcoming Budget Cycle

Understanding that Councils will now have turned their attention to the 2021/22 Planning and Budgeting processes., we ran a webinar to discuss the initial plans some of our councils had on this topic.  The frameworks under which plans and budgets are considered this year will be vitally important – possibly more than that for prior years. They will be heavily influenced by a range of factors including:

• Setting a new Council Plan covering the period 2021/22-2024/25 in a new term of Councillors
• Compliance with all the new requirements under the Local Government Act 2020
• Changing service requirements and expectations from our communities and other stakeholders

Critically, our planning will need to be in the context of ongoing uncertainties in a pandemic/post pandemic environment. The integration of our systems, processes and thinking will be critically important.

During this one-hour session we heard from 4 council’s about how they are approaching these challenges, both in terms of external community and stakeholder engagement and driving an integrated approach to align with their Council’s strategic objectives.

We are very appreciative to our members who took to the ‘stage’ to present:

• Allan Williams – Manager Financial Strategy (Acting) South Gippsland Shire –  Slide shown during presentation

• Narelle Klein – Director Finance and Systems, City of Wodonga

• Dennis O’Keeffe – CFO Port Phillip City Council

• Charles Nganga – Deputy CFO Casey City Council

Our facilitator was Danny Wain, CFO Monash City Council

Recording