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Using prioritisation to reflect on budget decisions

5 April 2023
Using prioritisation to reflect on budget decisions

Local government entities face the challenge of allocating resources to projects that address the diverse needs of their communities while working within budget constraints. To do this effectively, they must develop a prioritisation model that aligns capital demand projects with the strategic objectives of the municipality. This requires the use of a multi-criteria assessment framework that considers a range of factors, including environmental, social, economic, and governance objectives.

A multi-criteria assessment framework is a tool that helps local governments to evaluate the relative merit of different capital demand projects in a systematic and transparent manner. It does this by comparing each project against a set of pre-determined criteria that reflect the strategic priorities of the municipality. The framework considers multiple factors that are critical for project success, including cost, impact on the environment, and social and economic benefits. By using a multi-criteria assessment framework, municipalities can make informed decisions that maximize the impact of their investment in capital demand projects.

Capital demand is a term used to describe the total amount of funding required to complete all capital projects that a municipality has identified as priorities. Capital projects are typically infrastructure and public works projects that require significant investment, such as the construction of roads, bridges, and community centres. Capital demand can often exceed available funding, which means that municipalities must prioritise which projects to fund and which to postpone or cancel.

To address this challenge, we applied a multi-criteria assessment framework to assess all capital demand projects against the strategic objectives of the municipality. By doing so, we were able to identify the projects that would have the most significant alignment with the municipality’s strategic objectives. We then compared the results of the prioritisation model to the current funded budget to determine whether funds were being allocated to the priorities of the municipality.

Our study highlights the importance of using a multi-criteria assessment framework to guide budget decisions. By applying this framework to all capital demand projects, local governments can ensure that they are allocating resources to the projects that will have the most significant strategic impact. This approach provides a transparent and objective basis for decision-making that maximizes the impact of public investment in capital projects.

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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.