ISLAMABAD: There is a need to rationalise government’s expenditure and improve public sector services delivery and quality of results by making it transparent and based on outcomes that can be seen by the citizens, stated former Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) president and Deloitte senior partner Syed Asad Ali Shah in a conference organised by ICAP on public financial management (PFM). The theme of the conference was ‘PFM for Service Delivery’, which brought together expert speakers from both Pakistan and abroad to debate and discuss the role of finance as strategic decision maker and business partner. Asad was of the view that traditional budgeting is neither efficient nor responsive to citizens’ needs and expectations, adding that resources are allocated on the basis of the amount of money to be spent on each cost category e.g. materials, labour, overhead etc. He said performance is measured by focusing on the inputs, and expressed in monetary terms, without analysing the results achieved with those inputs. He apprised that output-based budgeting aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public expenditure by linking the funding of public sector organisations to the results they deliver. ICAP President Hafiz Mohammad Yousaf said, “This conference presents a unique opportunity to the accountancy profession of Pakistan bringing together leaders and innovators who have created a difference in public financial management. We will continue to support the public sector, and this conference is a platform to discuss challenges and debate solutions for the greater good of Pakistan’s public sector.” ICAP council member and chairman of the organising committee Rashid Ibrahim highlighted the theme of PFM Conference and the recommendation emerged for the government. He said PFM is essential for better management, scrutiny of government, spending and related stakeholders. Better PFM would present much-needed boost to the economy, he added. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Audit Director General Muhammad Faheem, in his presentation, stated that PFM makes stakeholders must concentrate on transparency and risk management. Other benefits and future of PFM include improvements in information analytics for informed decision making, increased IT governance, continued efficiency improvements in infrastructure, and keeping the momentum of offering innovative products and services paperless business processes, he added. Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) President John Matheson gave presentation on ‘transforming the finance function for service performance and accountability’ in which he highlighted that finance has a key and an increasingly important role to play in any organisation, adding that it helps decision makers understand the financial implications of strategic and policy options, balancing medium- and long-term horizons with short term operational requirements. World Bank Senior Education Specialist Umbreen Arif highlighted the examples from Sindh Education Sector Reform Programme. She said there are 46,724 schools, 145,500 teachers, and 4 million students who are focused on PFM in education projects. She added that they installed biometrics for employees, while teacher biometrics were also established and linked with payroll data. Institute of Corporate Governance President and CEO Fuad A Hashimi focused on creating a value added service through integrated reporting. “Integrated reporting focuses on performance rather than conformance and explains that primary purpose of an integrated report is to explain to financial capital providers and other stakeholders about how an organisation creates value over time, he added.