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Demystifying Prioritisation ; Prioritisation vs Budget

3 March 2023

Prioritisation and budget scenarios are related but distinct concepts in the local government space. Prioritisation involves identifying and ranking the most important projects that a municipality should undertake based on their level of strategic importance and impact on the community. Prioritisation is typically done during the planning process, before the budget is developed, and involves determining which initiatives should receive the most attention and resources.

Budget scenario, on the other hand, involves allocating resources to the initiatives that have been prioritised. It involves creating a financial plan that outlines how much money will be allocated to each initiative, and how it will be spent. Budget scenarios are developed based on various factors, such as a municipality’s financial resources, priorities, and objectives.

It is important to understand that just because an initiative is prioritised and deemed strategically important, it does not necessarily mean that it will be allocated funds in the current budget cycle. Budgets are developed based on available resources, and some priorities may have to be deferred or delayed until a municipality has sufficient funds to allocate to them.

The use of software/tools to facilitate the prioritisation and budget scenario process in local government can bring several benefits that can help streamline and optimize the decision-making process.

CP3 facilitates these two distinct, but important processes is that it automates and standardises the process, making it more efficient and consistent. CP3 gathers and organises relevant data, such as the needs of the community, and all other initiatives necessary to be delivered as expressed in i.e. masterplans. By automating and standardising the process, local governments save time and reduce the potential for errors, as well as ensure that the decision-making process is transparent.

CP3 facilitates collaboration and communication between different stakeholders. For instance, CP3 provides the platform for stakeholders to share information, as well as to provide feedback and input on various initiatives. This can help to ensure that the prioritisation and budget scenario process is more inclusive and comprehensive, as well as to build consensus and support for the final decisions.

Finally, using CP3 ensures the accuracy and quality of the decision-making process by allowing more effective evaluation of all initiatives and testing different scenarios and options. This ensures that the decisions that are made are based on the best available information and are more likely to achieve their intended outcomes.

Overall, the use of CP3 brings several benefits to the prioritisation and budget scenario process in local government, including greater efficiency, collaboration, transparency, accountability, and accuracy. The long-term benefits can make them a worthwhile investment for local governments seeking to optimize their decision-making processes.

#Novus³ #AdvisoryServices #CP³ #Budgets #SoftwareSolutions #PeopleOrientated #LetsMakeADifference #CEF #Capex #ValueAdd #CP³Modules #CP³Functions

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Capital investment prioritisation

Novus3’s innovative and celebrated approach to prioritsation, stems from significant multi-disciplinary experience that was gained in-situ at local government level, firmly rooted in an understanding of the built environment. Through the use of the CP3 system, our clients have the ability to appraise large and complex capital demand requirements within minutes, resulting in defendable, evidence based budgets. The results are often challenged and stress tested by politicians during political debates – the process therefore repeatedly have been proven to be beyond reproach and consistently reliable.

IDP Process Plan and change management

Novus3 provides advisory services to our clients, supporting them in setting up the correct structures and mechanisms internally which becomes the basis for sustainable and collaborative planning and implementation. The IDP process plan has a number of inter-related complexities that plays out on a cyclic basis year-on-year. Pre-empting and reacting to upcoming requirements in the IDP process pro-actively, renders the process into a constructive and demonstratable outcomes-based process.

Public sector budget and fiscal impact simulation

The financial management of public sector funding at local government level, even on a small scale, often rivals the complexity encountered at huge, listed, multi-national companies in the private sector.. Local governments have to operate and make smart financial decisions within a complex and exceedingly stressful environment. Compliance with legislation, policy frameworks and accepted accounting practices have to be maintained. Simulating these complexities allows our financial executives to ask “What if?” questions and reliably peer into the future with a long-term understanding of the implications of decisions that are taken in the present.

Spatial Development Frameworks

Novus3’s specialised knowledge and access to bespoke and purpose-made spatial and other analytic tools, provided the company with the opportunity to develop unparalleled experience in the development of Capital Expenditure Frameworks (CEFs) by bringing a practical angle to the formulation of implementation plans. A realistic roadmap is provided on how to realise the objectives developed in the Spatial Development Frameworks of the municipalities where we were involved. In return for the development and submission of these CEFs, these municipalities were awarded with significant additional funding from central government.

Built Environment Performance Plans

As part of the National Treasury City Support Program, Novus3 was regarded as specialist advisors on the built environment value chain – a process embedded in Built Environment Performance Plans (BEPPs). BEPPs were intended to form the bedrock of municipal capital planning and management for larger cities (metros). Novus3’s specialist knowledge played a big role from an advisory and capacity building perspective during the development of a number of BEPPs that were developed for a number of metros.

Infrastructure Capital Investment Plans

Infrastructure investment has to find a balance between addressing historical backlogs and inequalities, maintaining satisfactory prevailing functionality and level of service and strategically investing in unlocking future opportunities and growth whilst acknowledging a plethora regulatory constraints, policies and rules. In the process, certain strategic outcomes are sought which may manifest spatially strategically or environmentally. Our infrastructure capital investment plans provide the strategic guideline and provide the recommendations to find this balance.

Capital Expenditure Frameworks

Novus3 has developed multiple capital expenditure frameworks (CEFs) for multiple municipal clients and are regarded as the sector leaders in this area. These CEFs are financial roadmaps providing clear direction on financial constraints, the most important capital and investment priorities, an understanding of the unique local fundamentals and a sustainable response to these multiplicity of challenges.

Project preparation processes

The efficient planning and execution of projects from the moment of idea conception until the last brick has been laid has been the subject of study from as early as the reign of the Roman Empire. The governance process within the public sector has to play an important role in the journey of project preparation. The under-expenditure of allocated funding regrettably is often the only element in the built-environment that consistently re-occurs. All too often, funding is allocated to projects that simply are not ready to proceed to the next step. Novus3’s CP3 system is used to aid clients in the progressive steps involved in the project preparation journey.