People’s Association enhances financial management course for staff, leaders
Minister Chan Chun Sing, deputy chairman of the People's Association, engaging with the participants from the "Facilitating Conversations for Co-Creation" class conducted at the National Community Leadership Institute. Photo: Asyraf Kamil
SINGAPORE — Grassroots leaders and staff from the People’s Association will be able to attend an enhanced financial management course, as part of an expansion of courses being offered by the PA.
The course — Grassroots Financial Management for GRLs (grassroots leaders) — will help participants to familiarise themselves with standard financial procedures and regulations that the PA has set in place.
It will be conducted by the PA’s training arm, National Community Leadership Institute (NACLI).
Mr Chan Chun Sing, the PA’s deputy chairman, said on Wednesday (Feb 24): “The training is not just for the grassroots leaders and volunteers. It’s also about the training of the PA staff, because they must work in partnership.”
For example, in every constituency, any cheque that is being signed off must be checked by two sets of people, PA staff and grassroots leaders.
Previously, the course relied heavily on the dos and don’ts in financial management. Its enhanced edition is more scenario-based, with case studies incorporated for the participants to better understand the common errors that have occurred.
The enhancements to the course come after the PA was flagged for various lapses in the Auditor-General’s report that was released last July.
These included lapses in procurement, as well as in the management of tenancy contracts in Community Club/Centre Management Committees.
Noting that the some of those using the PA’s financial management system are volunteers, and not necessarily professional people, Mr Chan said: “We must make sure we evolve our system to (make it) as simple as possible ... and yet (with) sufficient safeguards to make sure things are properly accounted (for).”
Mr Chan, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, was speaking at a media briefing at the NACLI’s West Coast campus on Wednesday.
Mr Francis Ng, 59, an assistant treasurer at Tampines Central Citizens’ Consultative Committee who attended the enhanced financial management course, said: “It’s good that we are going through actual scenarios and also learning how we can balance good financial practices with the needs in the community.”
The NACLI has also rolled out a new course – The Art of Communicating Simply (I), in response to a call by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam last year for the public sector service to look at issues from the ordinary citizens’ perspectives.
The course, which covers areas such as identifying residents’ needs and engaging them more effectively, aims to help PA staff explain government schemes and policies to residents in a more simple and personal manner.
The NACLI plans to conduct 1,000 courses this year, up from the 900 courses that were offered in 2015. A quarter of these courses will be new, while another 35 per cent of the courses will be enhanced.
