Budget As A Tool For Allocating Resources

Budget Is A Tool For Allocating Resources….says Ngechop Yvonne
By James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
Mrs. Ngechop Yvonne Claire Ndifor has described a budget as tool for allocating resources. She was presenting a lecture for budgeting for growth and book keeping to managers of Fine Forest Foundation at the Sickle Cell society on the 2oth November 2008 within the frame work of a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship Grant for 2008.
In her lecture, Mrs. Ngechop Yvonne talked about the objective of a budget, the reason why a budget should aim at the growth of an institution and why book keeping is necessary for evaluation. She explained that a budget should be able to depict what the institution expects to spen and eaqrn over a period of time. She added that a budget could reflect the financial representation of an organization’s mission and strategic goals.
It is a tool for allocating resources and implementing strategic plans and serve as an indicator for evaluating performance. The expenses and revenue of a budget should be traceable, since it is used for evaluating performance and it should reflect the growth of the organization.
To reveal the importance of budgeting, within an organization, Mrs. Ngechop explained that budgeting is about planning, because this is crucial for the production of desired results. The hidden agenda of all budgeting is to save money upfront for both the known and the unknown expenses.
Emphasizing on the benefits of budgeting to an organization, she observed that through budgeting the organization can know what is going on, it is to control, it facilitates organization of activities, it also leads to fluid communication amongst the stakeholders and staff, through it managers can take advantage of opportunities, gain extra time and money.
There are five typical steps in elaborating a budget which include the following
 Setting goals that perform strategic plan
 Establishing objectives for identification of programmes and activities to accomplish set goals.
 Designing programmes that show the method for updating the goals
 Preparing a budget and approving revenues in a quantitative manner as well as expenditure based upon forecast.
 Monitoring progress and comparing actual expenses with budget amounts to establish variances where it exists.
There are three types of budgets which include production budget, sales budget and project budget. But in the case of voluntary and charitable organizations, projects are budgeted separately and a combined budget of the organization emerges. It also observed that in administrating finances, the budget is different from cash flow. When addressing cash flow, we direct our attention to actual expenditure and income. This is considered as cash flow statement. On the other hand, a budget is porepared on an accruals basis. This means that we are focusing the mind on expenses and income without looking at when it occurred.

Commonwealth NGO Mentors Drilled On Quality Assurance & Control

Cameroon Commonwealth NGO Mentors Drilled on Quality Assurance & Control
By James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
The chance of Business Sustainability can ONLY ever be maximized through endeavoring to incubate and live Quality Assurance (QA) and Control.. The observation was made by Prof. Sama Nwana of TMG Foundation UK during a lecture for Fine Forest Foundation Cameroon NGO Mentorship on sustainable management in London.
Speaking on Quality Assurance, Prof. Sama Nwana, said this refers to planned and systematic production processes that provide confidence in a product’s suitability for its intended purpose. Quality Assurance is a set of activities intended to ensure that products satisfy customer requirements in a systematic, reliable fashion. He added, however, that QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, but makes this more likely.
Prof. Sama Nwana went on to say, that two key principles characterise QA, which are “fit for purpose” and “right first time”. Fit for purpose simply means that the product should be suitable for the intended purpose, while right first time means, mistakes should be eliminated from the start. QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production, and management, production and inspection processes.
The professor emphasized on the fact that quality is a concern because it gives competitive advantage, encourages return purchase, provides customer with information and builds consumer confidence in the brand. On the other hand, it reduces cost incurred in solving post sales problems, while helping to improve on efficiency.
In brief, quality covers reliability, safety, after sales care, customer care and satisfaction, durability, production wastage and returns. Quality Assurance guarantees codes of practice, customer requirements, focus groups, accessibility, regulation compliance, external agency regulation and benchmarking.
According to Wikipedia, quality control and quality engineering are involved in developing systems to ensure products or services designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements. These systems are often developed in conjunction with other business and engineering discipines using a cross-functional approach.
It guarantees the responsibility of every member of the workforce for the quality of products and services provided by the business. It puts emphasis on reducing defects before it gets to the final stage of production and certainly to the consumer.
Total Quality Management is the name attributed to Quality Control. To achieve this, quality circles must be conceived, where meetings of relevant workers to discuss issues relating to maintenance and improvement of quality in the business are discussed. These meetings may also double as a form of empowerment and motivation.
There is also a statistical process control, where by statistical data generated to inform the evaluation of processes within the business is confirmed and this is linked to the zero defects. Zero defects are systems in place to ensure that no product leaves the business with a defect, and this is important in building supplier relationships, image and reputation.
In the business world, external agency regulation comes into play. These are international standardization organizations (ISO0 to ensure compatibility, quality and conformity. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 for example, set standards on quality and the environment.
Consumers Associations produce the magazine “Which” that provides a survey to inform consumers about quality and value for money of competing products. In Britain, the British Standard Institution (BSI) - The Kitemark and the CE mark are both important standards of quality. The CE mark confirms the product meets European Union, EU, directives.
Other external agency regulators are the trade association and the health and safety executive. The trade association draws up codes of practice for its members to adhere to and membership of such an association is an indication of quality. The health and safety executive is responsible for health and safety in the workplace.
The Commonwealth NGO Mentorship aims at ensuring qualiy trainee training and this is seen as a ISO-like system to ensure the courses are “fit for purpose” and ‘right first time”, Prof> Sama Nwana concluded. At the end of the course, the question is whether the trainees can business plan, understand the core modules of budgeting and fundraising, book keeping, project management, etc.
The trainee on their return to their country should be able to demonstrate the skills learnt in a “realistic” or “real” world task. It should be recalled at each moment that, ethic, laws, legislation, regulation and self reflection are the key words for business success. Click on the connection to return to http://cameroonlink.blogspot.com/

Health As A Continuum of Ill Health & Well Being

Health As A Continuum Of Ill Health And Well Being
James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
The professional services diector of Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaaemia Centre, Dr. Lola Oni OBE, on November 28, 2008 emphasized on the relationship between well-being and ill-health for the achievement of a state of complete physical,mental and social well-being. She added that the of disease or infirmity may not necessary mean that we are healthy.
She was addressing managers of the Fine Forest Foundation, FFF, Cameroon who were on a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship training at the Sickle Cell society UK under the 2008 scheme. Dr. Lola examined the check list of issues to look at when designing and executing projects in Cameroon. with the trainees during an interactive session.
Looking at Health Promotion, the participants reflected on what health is all about, what being healthy means, factors that influence health, who has control over the ability to be healthy, how to achieve optimum health and what hinders a person from being healthy. With this, Dr. Lola said, health is a continuum between ill health and well being.. The elements of health, she said, were physical, mental and social.
She quoted Tournier (1954) as saying that “Every illness calls for two diagnosis: one scientific (casual) and the other spiritual which is a diagnosis of its meaning and purpose.” Watson (1989) on his part believes that health refers to unity and harmony of body mind and spirit. This harmony should allow moe sel knowledge, self control, and self healing regardless of the health condition.
During a department of health conference in 1998, Wang observed that the health status of second generation migrant is often worse than that of their first generation parents. In attempt to gain acceptance and be seen as ‘non-foreign by their peers, many British born children and grandchildren of migrants discard many of their parents cultural values and practices and adopted western ones. Sadly their health behaviours and health patterns suggest that they tend to discard good practices.
According to the World Health Organisation (1989), health promotion is a concept where people and communities are enabled to define their own health needs. Being empowered to bring about social change that will improve their health status.
To achieve adequate health promotion action must be in two phases, notably the management of diseases and disease prevention. Under disease management, there should be curative services, management services and caring services, while the prevention of disease should involve prevention services, medical services and behaviour change.
Good examples of health promotion activities are immunisation programmes, cervical screening, water fluoridation, Sickle Cell Screening, Infant and Young Child Nutrition Promotion, banning of smoking in public places, awareness campaigns and maternal assessment of postnatal depression just to name a few.
Health promotion is gaining a lot ocncern due to the influences that surround it. These are often individual, biological or social, nuclear families where we have parents who smoke, the extended family that keep health care cost high, friends who influence others into bad habits and behaviour, community when we take a look at what the churches say on certain health issues,, schools and workplaces and public institutions. All thsse groups influence the development of health and we cannot succeed without associating them in one way or the other through social mobilisation, information and education.
Downie et al (1996-28) defines health education as a communication activity aimed at enhancing positive health and preventing or diminishing ill-health in individuals and groups, through influencing the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of those with power and of the community at large.
Activities that fall within the frame work of education include community empowerment, critical consciousness raising, advocacy and lobbying for legislation on pertinent health issues, promotion of a health and social environment, promoting informed health choices, involving non governmental and civil society organisations in health promotion, educating staff, creating more health services and above all setting agenda.
Health promotion strategies can be handled at individual or collective levels through authoritative modes of intervention or negotiation mode of intervention. The strategy for individuals is generally through persuasion and personal counseling, while collectively, this is appropriate through legislation and community development.
To attain positive results, the needs assessments must be done for adaptation to environment, and examination of coping mechanisms, recognition of needs, construction of strategies, review and modification of strategies regularly and the development of new strategies.

USING PQASSO FOR BETTER ENTERPRISE QUALITY OUT PUTS

Using PQASSO For More In-put And Out-put
By James Achanyi-Fontem, Cameroon Link
An Account Expert of NSTechnoMed, Mrs. Ngechop Claire Ndi told Fine Forest Foundation Cameroon managers that policies of organisations are environmentally and organizationally influenced and independent. She wss delivering a lecture on PQASSO, which stands for Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations, at the Sickle Cell Society’s Head Quarters in London, UK.
Three managers, Ursula, Anastasia and James from the FFF Cameroon and Cameroon Link were treated to lectures within the frame work of the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship Awards 2008. The managers were told that in the developing countries, international funders look for quality in good governance , since most of the small NGOs and charity organizations are considered as not-for-profit entities.
It was also observed that most of the third world country organizations lacked the knowledge of book keeping and their records of activities are often not traceable. Even where the records exist, the elements used are not standardized. Mrs. Ngechop explained that if the services rendered by t6he organizations are of good quality, this would propel and expand the impact of the organization’s work within the communities, at national and international levels.
She told the Cameroon managers that PQASSO is a straight forward tool, that is user friendly with a quality assurance system, which offers a flexible approach which allows the organization to work at its own pace. It also helps managers to take a systematic look at what is happening within the organization, and to identify areas where staff are doing well or not so well.
This also guides the decision makers and stake holders on planning new changes and orientations where there are weaknesses, while encouraging staff in areas which are doing very well. It helps in the planning and allocation of resources for making improvement over a realistic time frame.
Quality is dependent on the organization and this helps staff to try to always strive for excellence. QUALITY Assurance is a systematic way of implementing regulations within an organization. According to Ngechop Yvonne Claire Ndi, PQASSO is an evidence systematic insurance of quality, because records of activities are traceable.
She encouraged the managers to keep notes and minutes of all meetings including receipts of expenses for traceable justification, Income should lso be logged on paper and the computer.. This means that with PQASSO, a manager can easily locate resources in a quality manner. In other words, the strength of an organization can be judged from the level of usage of PQASSO and that is why some people see the system as an audit oriented system during which all levels of an organization are scrutinized during monitoring.
By looking at every aspect in the organization, it is easier to identify problems and review the regulations in order not to accumulate mistakes. With the usage of PQASSO, all withdrawals from a bank account or savings scheme are authorized by two signatories or more.
Addressing the issue of who benefits from such a system, Mrs. Ngechop Claire Ndi observed that from research findings, organizations using PQASSO gain in various ways. By becoming more effective and efficient, the turn over increases as the organizational system and procedures improve.
On the other hand, the quality of the users get better and communication among staff and other stake holders is enhanced with board members and volunteers. While the staff is motivated the benefits create credibility at all levels and funders see an interest to continue to support on-going activities. The manager becomes creative in solving problems within the organization.
It should be noted that review and monitoring sheets in an organization are PQASSO tools that encourage efficiency and this often lead to a change in attitude. Talking about principles and values of PQASSO, the accounting expert said, it is designed for organizations and people who are motivated by strong values. THE DESIGNERS PUT THE USERS AT HEART. And this brings added value to the system for permanent staff and volunteers.
PQASSO was created to promote equal opportunities and diversity, which encourages environmental and ethical responsibility, effective communication learning opportunities for all. The commonwealth fellows were told that during monitoring the inspector looks for evidence and impact which assist in a review of the policies of the organization
There are seven achievable areas in PQASSO which are looked upon as the seven quality areas. These include: Planning, governance, leadership and management, user-centred service, managing people, learning and development. These qualities cannot be achieved in a short limit of time, mastery comes with time.
The five quality areas are managing resources, communication, promotion, working with others, monitoring and evaluation and results. When an organization covers all these areas, it can consider itself to be up to date like the Domain of Silence visited at Greenwood Gate, Black Hill in Crowborough on the 2nd December 2008. Going through the installations and discussing with GM Sven Johannson, it became obvious that the success of an organisation does not depend on the size of the staff, but on its quality. The domain of silence at Greenwood Gate has very few staff, but operates will well defined objectives and strategies that assist the organisation to reach its annual target.
From what was discovered, GM Sven Johannson applies the Practical Quality Assurance for Small Size Organisations policy to achieve target objectives. Like in most humanitarian organizations, volunteers play a very important role, though their in puts are also acounted for. This is what was taught to the managers from Cameroon about PQASSO, which has to be transfered to other non governmental organisations in Cameroon within the frame work of the action plan adopted at the end of the training at the Sickle Cell Society. It would be recalled that this training was supported through the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship Awards 2008. To get more on video about the training, click on this link: http://uk.youtube.com/user/camlink99