The City of Onkaparinga’s Financial Directions strategy has attracted interest from 30 other Councils since winning the Financial Management category at last year’s national Local Government Awards.
Financial Directions is a long term financial forecasting and capital works model. Onkaparinga’s General Manager of Strategy and Policy, Debra Just, said it has been updated since winning the award.
“It has a very high level of accountability and consistency in decision making,” she said. “But it also has sufficient flexibility to accommodate changing circumstances.”
The City of Onkaparinga was formed in July 1997 from the amalgamation of three southern Adelaide Councils. Debra Just said Financial Directions guaranteed Council’s long term viability and reinforced its strategic and corporate plans. The funding allocation model integrates sustainability assessment with project, risk and asset management principles.
Its main components are reviewed annually and include the following.
- A ten year corporate finance model
- A five year operating expenses chart
- A five year project and capital works plan.
“Financial Directions answers a few burning questions for Local Government,” Debra Just said. “Will Council be financially viable in the long term? How can Council confidently decide between competing bids for funding different projects and capital works? And how can it get best value for the funds it expends on projects and capital works?”
She said the Corporate Finance Model answers the first question about Council’s long term viability by projecting income, expenditure and tranfers to and from its reserves over ten years.
The model guides and tests Council’s policy direction and resource allocation. It establishes the total dollars (quantum) allocated to operating expenses, projects and capital worksIt uses independently derived data, such as estimated rate revenue from new development, CPI and average weekly earnings.
The Project and Capital Works Plan is a tool and a process for allocating funding as lump sums to categories that reflect the strategic, corporate and operational requirements of Council. Examples of competing funding categories include roads, paths, coastal projects, community, culture, libraries, strategic planning and economic development. These categories are then broken down into subcategories, for example, paths might be broken down into shared use trails, local footpaths, walkways and on road bike lanes.
Council has an agreed strategy for allocating funds within each category and agreed scoring funding criteria, which are publicly available. The assessment of all projects and capital works considers Council’s role, factors that might prevent works from proceeding, a needs assessment and scheduling requirements.
For further information contact Debra Just, email debjus@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au or telephone (08) 8384 0649.
