With harsh cuts in public expenditure looming, the Forum in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is presenting a number of breakfast workshops under the banner of the Financial Insights Series. The first of these, on Wednesday 5 May 2010 at Malone House, discussed the changing role of the chief finance officer. In scoping an agenda for the Financial Insights Series the inaugural session identified important dimensions of the chief finance officer's role, particularly those that will have a bearing on the formulation of corporate strategy and in securing the outcomes the organisation needs to achieve in what will be a testing financial environment.
The second workshop took the form of a wide-ranging discussion about income generation - about alternative means of raising or augmenting vote or grant income - led by PwC's corporate finance partner, David Clements who reviewed a number of possible options for raising alternative sources of finance.
The discussion centred on Northern Ireland's public sector asset base - state-owned assets that were largely debt free and largely unleveraged. The discussion highlighted many of the difficulties involved but it was acknowledged that the various possibilities ranged over did need to be better understood and considered seriously in the context of the looming funding gap.
It was also acknowledged that raising money in new but not necessarily unfamiliar ways would help stimulate the local economy by atrracting in more capital. It was agreed that all possibilities touched on in the discussion would require fresh thinking about how best to take things forward .
All three workshops have been scheduled for May and June will be between 8.00am and 9.30am at Malone House. The third, the June workshop, on Wednesday 23rd June at Malone House, will look to the other side of the equation and involve 'Looking at costs in a different way'.
Faciltators: The workshops are facilitated by PwC senior consultants Donna MacRae and Bronwyn Surphlis.
Background Reading: "A place at the top table? Raising Finance's game in the public sector" - a PwC Public Sector Research centre publication
Next workshop:
Venue: Malone House
More information: Contact Kim McKnight, (T) 02890 90347400.