Student 'shadows' CFO of the Department of Internal Affairs
CPA Australia and Victoria Business School offered 13 accounting and finance students the chance to spend an exclusive full day of one-on-one mentoring with a Public Sector CFO, and student Monica Sorce gives an insight into her experience below.
Students entering the 'Shadow a CFO' Competition submitted a 500 word entry answering three questions, and a shortlist was chosen to give a five minute presentation to a Dragons' Den panel.
Monica Sorce talks about shadowing Matthew Needham, CFO of the Department of Internal Affairs
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is the oldest government agency in New Zealand, responsible for a vast range of portfolios including passports, birth and death certificates, and even the dog database.
My day spent shadowing Matthew Needham, CFO of the DIA, was an opportunity for a glimpse into his busy role as well as the DIA as a whole, and I left with a more extensive understanding of both.
A recurring theme: collaboration, and this started with a breakfast seminar that included Chief Executives across all government agencies.
This forum discussed Four Year Plans and expectations for Budget 2015, and it was clear that significant changes had been made in recent years with CE's encouraged to reach across the agencies and engage staff from all levels.
At an ICT meeting, continued collaboration and information sharing was encouraged between the DIA and Inland Revenue, as the DIA had recently overhauled its accounting information system by transferring to SAP—in line with the IR—from Oracle, which had been in place for 20 years.
Collaboration was also encouraged at the Shared Services Branch quarterly managerial meeting among the departments during the discussion of “Where to from here?”.
An aspect which I will take away from my day is the difference between the public and private sectors. Matthew mentioned that defining a vision for the public sector was not as clear-cut as the private sector, where everything is driven back to the dollar, and observed that government agencies were being encouraged to become more commercialised.
It was interesting to hear about difficulties that could be easily solved in the private sector but not so easily in the public sector—for example one portfolio at the managerial meeting was receiving the majority of its complaints from the flag hire service which essentially brings no revenue, but privatising or removing it aren’t viable options.
The highlight of my day was speaking to Matthew one-on-one, where I had the chance to ask about his personal career path.
He gave me practical advice which I will follow as I begin my own career, especially as I am now highly interested in working for the public sector.
I extend a massive thank you to Matthew for allowing me to shadow him, and make me feel included and informed wherever we went. His commitment to the role is clear, and I feel a heightened sense of trust among all public servants.
Finally, thank you to CPA Australia for organising this opportunity. My day as a shadow was busy yet extremely rewarding, and I highly recommend the experience to any accounting or finance student.