Civic Financial Services Strategic Finance Forum 2017

Day One: Monday 27 March 2017

Kevin Ramsay, General Manager Corporate Finance & Property, Auckland Council and Deputy Chair, Taituarā Business Performance Working Party

9:20am: Technology and the Finance Manager
AJ Hazelhurst, Director Technology Consulting, PWC

AJ Hazelhurst is a Director in PwC's Technology Consulting Practice. AJ has lead many large scale, highly complex and strategic programmes and portfolios in the Local Government sector over the past 6-7 years. His session will cover a few key Technology driven themes that provide both interesting challenges and opportunities in terms of finance, including the journey to Cloud, introduction of the Virtual worker, the impact and benefits of Digital Channel Strategy, and how to budget for enterprise scale agile delivery

Jacinta Straker, Manager, Financial Planning and Performance and Martyn Cole, Water and Wastewater Asset Manager, Kapiti Coast District Council

And to follow PwC a presentation that highlights how the use of good data can assist in refining water pricing. Kapiti Coast are drawing on various data sources and using technology together with using a group representing the community interests (community regime advisory group) to support their implementation of water pricing. This session will focus both on the implementation of pricing and the role data plays.

Raymond Horan, Sector Improvement Manager, NZ Society of Local Government Managers

The 2018-28 long-term plans will be the sixth long-term plans that local authorities have prepared.There can be a temptation to treat a plan as ‘same story, different day’, but the issues the sector faces and the expectations of a long-term plan evolve.This session will cover the issues and challenges that finance folk, and local authorities should be addressing in 2018.

11.50am: Office of the Auditor General Update
Andrea Reeves, Assistant Auditor-General – Local Government, Office of the Auditor-General

OAG will be focussing onthe content of their 2015/17 sector report particularly rating issues and COI, their Governance and Accountability Report and matters relevant to the coming year (such as the LTP).

A. What’s Hot in the World of Financial Reporting

Phillippa Wilson, Group Manager Corporate Services, South Taranaki District Council, Nicola Hankinson, Senior Policy Analyst, CA ANZ and Anthony Heffernan, Director Accounting Standards, External Reporting Board

Phillippa and Nicola will lead you through an informative update of what’s on the horizon in terms of financial reporting requirements for local government entities. The session will include an overview of the proposed PBE IPSAS standards on heritage assets, social benefits, financial instruments and the all-important revenue recognition and measurement. They will also provide an update on recent developments and guidance produced by CA ANZ and let you know how you can get the most value out of your membership.

B. Taxation Update

Michelle McDonald and Phil Fisher, PwC

• Making Tax Simpler – what’s it all about
• CCOs and tax - things that might ‘pop’ from Better Local Services and CCOs in general
• Other tax matters

C. Reviewing Fees and Charges

R aymond Horan, Sector Improvement Manager, Taituarā

According to Statistics New Zealand, sales of good and services make up around one-sixth of our sector’s operating income.Getting the fees and charges right is an important decision both for the amount of revenue involved and for the economic signals that pricing sends.Taituarā has just reviewed its guidance on price-setting – in this session Raymond will cover the fundamentals of pricing.

Choose another from the topics listed under Marketplace of Ideas: Session One – or go to the same o

A. What’s Hot in the World of Financial Reporting

Phillippa Wilson, Group Manager Corporate Services, South Taranaki District Council, Nicola Hankinson, Senior Policy Analyst, CA ANZ and Anthony Heffernan, Director Accounting Standards, External Reporting Board

B. Taxation Update

Michelle McDonald and Phil Fisher, PwC

C. Reviewing Fees and Charges

Raymond Horan, Sector Improvement Manager, Taituarā

R aymond Horan, Sector Improvement Manager, Taituarā

Local authorities in England were amongst the first sectors to feel the so-called austerity financial management of the period 2010-2015.What strategies did they follow to adapt, how successful have they been and what can we learn?

The annual update on all of Taituarā’s good works, including an update on the progress of the Business Performance Working Party (which now has the oversight of Taituarā’s work in finance and related disciplines).

5:00pm: Local Government Funding Agency Networking Drinks

DAY TWO: Tuesday 28 March 2017

9.05am: Economic Update: BERL
Dr Ganesh Nana, Executive Director, BERL

Where’s the New Zealand economy heading in the short-medium term.What are the challenges and risks local authorities should be aware of?

9.55am: Breakout Session Three

Choose one from:

A. Legal Update – Simpson Grierson
Lizzy Wiessing, Senior Associate, Simpson Grierson

An update on the latest in decision-making, rating and other legal developments especially tailored for the needs of the finance manager and finance specialists.

B. Money Markets Update
Miles O’Connor, Manager Corporate Services, Bancorp

• What’s the outlook for movements in interest rates and what are the drivers?
• What other money market trends and issues are driving local authorities?
  

C. Living Through an Inland Revenue Tax Review
Kevin Ramsay, General Manager Corporate Finance & Property, Auckland Council and Martin Fletcher, Manager Corporate Finance, Marlborough District Council

It appears its local government’s turn to attract Inland Revenue’s attention.Auckland Council and Marlborough District Council have recently been through the review process.This session will be a roundtable sharing of lessons rather than a formal presentation session

The Local Government and Environment Select Committee is expected to report back the Local Government Act Amendment Bill (aka the Better Local Services Bill) on or before 31 March. The Bill is grounded in an apparent view that the corporate CCO is the ‘best’ model for sharing capability – but there’s more than one way of skinning this particular cat.To finish the seminar here are three case studies of different means of achieving substantially the same ends:

• Centre of Excellence - The 80/20 rule
  Don McLeod, Chief Executive, Matamata Piako District Council
  
  When it comes to infrastructure what provides the biggest bang for buck?Work by NZTA through the Road Efficiency group identified smart asset management as the main driver of good decision making not necessarily separate structures or different service delivery models (contracting out, contract models etc)
  
  Structural change will always meet resistance and patch protection - that’s human. It also avoids the elephant in the room and that is what's left if we put everything into separate organisations? So how can we improve our game that avoids acrimony, lengthy debates and little improvement in the medium term? Centre of excellence for best practise in all aspects of asset management is one way.
  
  This approach can be done internally an organisation where one unit has the responsibility for all asset management planning and strategy and also regionallyThe Waikato has examples of both . What have we done, what has been the observable benefits, what have been the lessons learnt and where to now?

• Regional Collaborative Roading Procurement
  Hamish Waugh, General Manager Infrastructure, Manawatu District Council
  
  Manawatu, Horowhenua and Rangitikei District Counciuls have joined togtehr to collaboratively procure roading services in their areas.Hamish will explain how the collaborative procurement and operation model works.
  
  
• Shared Services and IT, Wellington City Council
  Channa Jayasinha, Manager, ICT Shared Services, Wellington City Council
  
  In 2013 Wellington region’s CEs became concerned about the sustainability of their ICT operations in the face of increasing internal and external change and technology dependency.Following a feasibility study, business case and RFP process three of the councils have set up an ICT shared service model under the management of a shared service office.The result: greater focus on strategic initiatives and performance improvement, and less on technology ‘firefighting’, for an improved service.
  
  

Kevin Ramsay, General Manager Corporate Finance & Property, Auckland Council and Deputy Chair, Taituarā Business Performance Working Party