The South Australian Financial Managers Group has continued to develop its highly innovative Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) model. Developed by a group of South Australian Local Government financial management professionals, the framework attempts to standardise long term financial planning to allow Local Governments to accurately compare and contrast financial results and define benchmarks.
The project is developing a model LTFP for all Local Governments using Excel along with a training manual.
Workshops will be held for South Australian councils to introduce the new model and it will soon be available for sale to other councils across Australia. Two consultation workshops have been held with councils to discuss the issues and needs of the model.
In addition, discussions have been held with the Office of Local Government, Local Government Association and Metro CEO’s group to ensure that there is a high level of stakeholder involvement in the model’s development.
A draft model has been developed and has undergone a review by the project steering group. Pilot councils will perform robust testing of the model, prior to training workshops being held for all interested councils in September 2004.
The project has moved a little slower than first anticipated to better fit in with the workload requirements of key finance staff, who will be the ones targeted to attend the training sessions. The project is generating interest from councils across Australia.
The Local Government Research and Development Scheme has financially supported this project. For more information contact Shaun Matters on (08) 8408 0400 or email smatters@ahc.sa.gov.au
