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Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorMcAllister, Patrick
PositionLetters - Letter to the editor

I have just read "A favourable variance". it touches on some of the key issues in public-sector financial management--for example, the need to focus on outcomes, the requirement for world-class performance management and (the prerequisite for success) a change of culture. I have spent much of my professional life in this territory in Whitehall departments, government agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and I've seen great progress in recent years. The drive to recruit professionally qualified finance directors and initiatives such as "Professional skills for government" are all welcome.

Yet there is still a tendency in the public sector to focus on inputs. Take project and programme management, for example: the government has realised the importance of this discipline and has rightly striven to embed the appropriate skills in departments, agencies and NDPBs. But, when I ask colleagues how important projects are progressing, I constantly get responses along the lines of: "Great! We have our risk register in place." This focus on essential but insufficient process misses the point of the ultimate goal of delivering a project and achieving the benefits. We need to change attitudes to focus on...

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