Free Finance & Budgeting for the Public Sector Essay Sample
All public managers need to learn public budgeting and finance because they made decisions about resources utilization of an organization. The study gives them the ability to control the use of all public resources and operate in the trust of the public. They need to be able to provide all the services needed before they run out of money. They need to understand other managers’ cases. In addition, managers must not misuse public resources because they may end up in jail. Frequently, not-for-profit organizations have terrible management performances in place. With better budget systems, government crisis can be avoided. Usually, they financially underpin the organization. Finance understanding is an important step to understanding what goes on in public organizations. Financial and budgetary operations are carried out by the office of programme planning, budget and accounts in the United Nations. They establish and apply budgetary and accounting policies and procedures.
Mission and goals of United Nations
United Nations came into existence in 1945 through the UN Charter. Its purpose is to bring all world nations together to work for development and peace. It works on codes of justice, human dignity and the welfare of all people. It deals with all kinds of international problems. There are around 192 United Nations members with each nation getting one vote. The General Assembly acts as the world parliament where the members meet. It owns a flag, own post office and has postage stamps of its own. They use six official language; English, French, German, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish. The United Nations is governed by eight millennium development goals by 2015. All the countries of the world and leading development institutions agreed to them. The first goal is the eradication of severe poverty and hunger. The second goal is to attain universal primary education. The next empowers women and encourages more gender equality. The fourth goal aims at diminishing child mortality. The fifth millennium development goal improves maternal health for all mothers. The other goal combats diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS. The seventh millennium goal promotes environmental sustainability. The last but not least millennium development goal aims at developing a global affiliation for development. United Nations aims at keeping peace in the whole world and developing good relations among nations. They join to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and diseases from the world. This helps people live better lives. It also stops destruction of the environment. People are encouraged to respect other people’s rights and freedoms. United Nations helps nations achieve all these aims. The main principles of the United Nations include the sovereign equality of all the member states and that they must abide by the charter. Use of force or threats must be avoided. Instead, peaceful means must be used to settle countries differences. Countries are urged to help the United Nations.
United Nations Ethics in the Public Sector
Individual ethics is necessary in the public sector administration. Public officials need to put the interest of the public before their own. Public servants are confronted with various ethical dilemmas. There are professional ethics that guide them to govern any conflicts that may arise when carrying out their duties. The dilemmas comprise administrative privacy, corruption and pressure influence. Corruption puts the society’s stability and security in danger. The General Assembly is very concerned at corruption related the problems. It encourages international cooperation to prevent and control corruption across national borders. It provides technical assistance to improve public management systems.
The general Assembly condemns corruption practices and helps investigate and take appropriate legal action against corruption cases. It calls upon all governments to come together and put off corruption practices. In 1995, it counseled the Economic and Social Council to mull over the draft international agreement on illegitimate payments. The United Nations adopted a declaration in opposition to corruption and bribery in worldwide commercial operations. It is undertaking works to tackle the predicament of corruption and bribery in international marketable transactions. It calls all its member states to take appropriate steps to combat the problem. It asks the economic and social council and all its auxiliary bodies to consider ways to implement the resolution. It also urges them to keep the issue under regular review. The General Assembly attracts all the other bodies of the United Nations to help endorse these objectives. It encourages private and public corporations to collaborate to execute the declaration. In addition, it requests the Secretary General to spread the word about the decree and prepare a report on the progress. Member states of United Nations acts according to their own constitution and legal principals. They commit themselves to pursue effective enforcement of the presented laws disallowing corruption in international commercial transactions. They criminalize all forms of bribery of overseas public officials. The nations deny tax deductibility of bribes paid and maintain standards that improve transparency. A lot of money is tabled for ethics related actions in the United Nations system organizations. Millions are set aside to fund the heads of ethics office budget.
United Nations Finance and Budget Technology Considerations
The Office of Information and Communications Technology is a United Nations’ department that supplies enterprise-wide supervision of ICT programmes. It ensures alignment with the Secretariat’s overall ICT objective in budgets and making of decision. It also supports the United Nation’s mission. It centers on strategic improvements of its universal ICT infrastructure. United Nations initiated a support base in Spain. This base helps to host all venture ICT systems in state of the art competence with a 24-hour monitoring and a cheaper support. It unifies ICT infrastructure and resources to support enterprise systems. The approach was expensive. It required shake-up to capitalize on effectiveness. This concept reduces maintenance costs and gives better support, storage and protection for vital United States data and ICT capacities. It makes certain persistent access to all enterprise systems and urgent situation communication equipments for United Nations peacekeeping and out of the ordinary political missions. The Secretary-General has proposed a plan to improve the information and communication technology of the United Nations Secretariat. They decrease fragmentation and facilitate information and communication technology innovations. The Office of information and communication technology operates a mission donation programme. They allow organizations to request recycled computer equipments to use. Hence, they support a greener information and communication technology procedure.
Budget Regulation
A medium-term plan was permitted and revised by the General assembly to supply a framework for devising of biennial programme budget. It provides that the financial information supplied have to be connected to the medium-term plan Another rule states that only activities that are in implementation of medium-term plan shall be included in the proposed budget. Data on the required resources will be used in internal budget making process. The proposed programme budget will also be divided into sections. Changes and resources allocated to each part will be explained. Another rule states that all actions shall be programmed if they request resources. Outputs and activities from the previous budgetary period can be discontinued after being submitted. The committee for programme and coordination prepares a report about the proposed programme. The report contains recommendations and assessment of related proposals. The Secretary-General gives out a statement on the budget allegations of its suggestions. The economic and social council and the advisory committee receive a report from the committee for programme and coordination on administrative and budgetary question. Each section is considered by the general Assembly. There is not a council commission or any other competent body that is allowed to make a decision about a change in the programme approved by General assembly. They have to receive and take account of a statement from the Secretary-General on the proposal. The head of a department is responsible of consulting with the programme planning, budget and accounts office on the budget implications’ report. On the other hand, the Secretary-General monitors the progress.
United Nations Revenue Sources
United Nations has a broad mix of income generating activities within its system. It confronts the challenge of driving these activities as business bodies because United Nations is not planned for business operations. All organizations generate some financial income from its activities. However, United Nations activities are limited. The mandate these activities were established for prevents them from producing more financial benefits.
United Nations gets its funding from member states. They are the biggest contributors to its budget. Each gives according to its ability. Member states voluntarily contribute to finance the regular budget. One member cannot be overly relied on to finance it according to a principle established by the assembly. Most of this money goes to peace and security missions. Special United Nations programmes get their funding from the other member governments.
United Nations Internal Affairs
The United Nations established the office of internal oversight services to assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his duties. The office operates independently and deals with resources and staff. It monitors, does internal audit, inspects, evaluates and performs investigations. It has the mandate to initiate and act on and report actions it considers important to fulfill its response to its oversight objectives. The office helps member states and United Nations as a whole to protect their assets. It ensures compliance of duties efficiently and improves delivery. It detects and minimizes fraud and mismanagement. It makes sure that the organization is transparent and accountable. It proposes measures to aid the organization in responding to emergencies. It also provides data and assessments necessary to make decisions. The office offers independent views regarding effectiveness of the organization. It encourages change, awareness, integrity and management. The office of internal oversight services impacts successful strategic budget planning of the United Nations.
United Nations Cost-benefit Analysis
There are methods for estimating the costs and benefits of adaptation options. There are benefits of adopting non-monetary methods. The UNDP focuses its energy on adaptation systems to ensure development in areas facing climate hazards. The adaptation mission of the UNDP protects the millennium development goals even as the climate changes affect the world. There is a relationship between hunger and climate change problems. The adaptation is guided by principles. One of the goals encourages economic growth even in the face of climate change. Another principle includes systemic development changes. It promotes integration of climate change risks into national plans and poverty eradication efforts. It also measures success with goals that reveal policy changes. It identifies priorities of development, and determines current and any future risk of climate. It identifies opportunities for adaptation and integrates implementations into ongoing practices.
United Nations Finance
The demands on United Nations keep changing. It provides a stage for international action. It has to provide vital services that are necessary for international peace. The division of investment and enterprise is a worldwide center of excellence dealing with investments and enterprise growth of the United Nations systems. It has experience and expertise on research and policy investigation. It has been involved in intergovernmental issues and assists developing countries. The United Nations gathers investment stakeholders globally. The member states, investment promotion agencies, academia, business population and civil societies are brought together. The secretariat performs day to day work of the United Nations. It is headed by a Secretary General. It has various duties depending on the problems being dealt with by the United Nations. The department of management backs the secretariat up. The United Nations treasury has an operational exchange rate used for its internal records. The United Nations board of auditors audits using the international standards of auditing. The audits are conducted in conformity with additional financial regulations and rules of the United Nations.
Conclusion
The office manages all resources of United Nations finance. They also account, and report financial operations of the organization. Further, they facilitate intergovernmental deliberations. The programme planning, budget and accounts office facilitates financial and the budgetary decision process by the general assembly. They are also in charge of the operations of the treasury and the financial information. The office head is the assistant secretary general. Their budget usually covers the programmes of United Nations costs. The areas covered by the budget include political affairs, international cooperation for development and humanitarian affairs. It also covers international justice and law, human rights and public information. Member states contribute into the regular budget funds. They are also assessed for the cost incurred through international tribunals. They other cost they are assessed is that of peacekeeping operations. Presentation of financial statements of United Nations adopt international public sector accounting standards. They were recently approved by the general assembly.