Categorie archief: English

Financial strategy in times of transition

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Think tank ‘From Global to Local’ 2019

PRIMO Europe | juli 2019

PRIMO is organising the 6th ‘From Global to Local’ Think Tank in The Hague on Friday, 5 April 2019, in close collaboration with BNG Bank and UDITE. The findings, based on a survey of our members, are consistent with national and international reports: we are witnessing a combination of societal transitions. These are taking place simultaneously and genuinely call for reflection and a reassessment of financial strategy in the public sector.

De Denktank 2019. V.l.n.r. Gido ten Dolle (Delft), Tom Schulpen (Noord-Brabant), Henriëtte de Jong (Groningen), Ad Verbakel (Eindhoven), Teun Eikelboom (Ministerie BZK), Johan de Kruijf (Radboud Universiteit), Hans van Lent (Ede), Hans Krul (Delft), Jan Willem Dijk (Assen), Bert Hummel (BNG Bank), Caspar Boendermaker (BNG Bank), Jaap Zwaan (Medemblik) en Jack Kruf (PRIMO).

These include transitions in the social sector, the Environment Act, digital transformation (cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, big data), the energy transition, the circular economy and climate change. They are placing significant pressure on financial resources in terms of maintaining society’s resilience. It appears to be a systemic issue.

The recent letter from Seth Klarman to investors is on the table. Klarman is a hedge fund manager, CEO and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group. To put it mildly, he draws attention to the growing problem of government debt.

Above all, it is clear that there is a great need for innovation in the form of practical and concrete financial instruments. It would appear that sound financial governance and management once again form the foundation of our future. Hence, a 2019 PRIMO think tank that delves into the status quo, scenarios and concrete tools, exploring both administrative ambition and financial realism. Looking in the rear-view mirror and peering under the bonnet are important, but no longer sufficient. Ex post democratic accountability is essential, but ex ante financial architecture – which actually works and can be linked to scenarios – is certainly becoming a critical success factor.

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Is there sufficient financial capacity to cope with these transitions?

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Johan de Kruijf and Jack Kruf | April 2019

The title was one of the key questions raised at the ‘From Global to Local’ think tank on 5 April. Given the transitions currently underway, the rise in risks within the public sector and the gradual accumulation of backlogs in management and maintenance, this question was brought to the fore. So what is the actual financial situation in the Netherlands? An initial exploration. Less rosy? Hairline cracks? Not really recovered from the credit crisis, now 10 years ago? The series of financial setbacks regarding the transition of the social sector is not yet over and is leaving deep scars. Are we pessimists? No, not at all; realists. Nothing more than that. The first outlines.

Key figures and basic statistics

Since 2016, local authorities and provincial councils in the Netherlands have been using a set of fixed key figures to assess their financial position. We highlight solvency, the unadjusted net debt ratio and EMU debt. Sources include Statistics Netherlands, waarstaatjegemeente.nl and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

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Global reconstruction of historical ocean heat storage and transport

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L. Zanna, S. Khatiwala, J.M. Gregory, J. Ison, & P. Heimbach | January 2019, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Zanna et al. (2019): “Since the 19th century, rising greenhouse gas concentrations have caused the ocean to absorb most of the Earth’s excess heat and warm up. Before the 1990s, most ocean temperature measurements were above 700 m and therefore, insufficient for an accurate global estimate of ocean warming. We present a method to reconstruct ocean temperature changes with global, full-depth ocean coverage, revealing warming of 436 x 1021 Joules since 1871.

Our reconstruction, which agrees with other estimates for the well-observed period, demonstrates that the ocean absorbed as much heat during 1921–1946 as during 1990–2015. Since the 1950s, up to one-half of excess heat in the Atlantic Ocean at midlatitudes has come from other regions via circulation-related changes in heat transport.”

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PRIMO Risk Management Award

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Introduction

The PRIMO Risk Management Award was launched in 2007 by the PRIMO Europe board to recognise the efforts and standards being achieved across our cities and regions in creating and implementing risk management mechanisms for safer and more efficient environments.

PRIMO Risk Management Award

The award is for innovative approaches to risk management that demonstrate real benefits in terms of improved processes, cost reduction, and embedding risk management within an organisation. The Award will be made irrespective of the organisation’s size, level of financial investment, or amount of resources devoted to the project or initiative.

With this award, consisting of a statue and a laudatio, PRIMO would like to encourage governors and managers in the public domain to enter this award to support our association in promoting and highlighting risk management across Europe, and to showcase the considerable work and effort that goes into this field on a daily basis.

The statue consists of a stylised representation, symbolising the importance of connecting power and the ability to share knowledge (arch part and ‘European’ stars) by humans and organisations to achieve good governance and success. It was designed and crafted by Louise Kruf and is based on the PRIMO logo.

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Think tank ‘From Global to Local’ 2018

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Energy transition: The need for policy-makers to address uncertainty.

Jack Kruf and Koos van Houdt | April 2018.

On 20 April 2018, PRIMO organised the 5th ‘From Global to Local’ Think Tank in The Hague, in close collaboration with UDITE and BNG Bank.*

Welcome

BNG Bank, as Pauline Bieringa, Director of Public Finance, noted in her welcome address, is deeply committed to the issue of the energy transition. The bank operates an Energy Transition Facility, a fund managed in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Tilburg University.

Pauline Bieringa.

A wide range of projects relating to the energy transition and the promotion of solar and wind energy may be eligible for funding from the Energy Transition Facility. It regards the partnership with PRIMO as highly valuable, as the cross-pollination of knowledge and experience is mutually beneficial.

Professor Bastiaan Zoeteman opens his keynote speech as follows: “The Netherlands is lagging behind in Europe’s energy transition. The Netherlands has become complacent. In the 1980s, under the leadership of ministers such as Winsemius and Nijpels (both of the VVD), the country set a good example internationally when it came to the environment, energy and climate. But the Netherlands also had natural gas. A source of fossil energy considered relatively clean. As a result, our country has fallen behind in terms of policy regarding the energy transition. Now that it is necessary and natural gas extraction is coming to an end, we are languishing at the bottom of the European Union alongside Belgium.”

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Plaidoyer pour une clause de gouvernance intégrée

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L’alignement entre contenu et gouvernance

Michel Klompmaker | mars 2018

Lors de la conférence sur les risques dans les collectivités locales, tenue le 17 janvier 2018 au siège du gouvernement provincial à Utrecht, un groupe d’experts a débattu des aspects clés de la gouvernance et du contrôle au sein des organisations municipales.

Jack P. Kruf lors de son discours d’ouverture au bâtiment du gouvernement provincial à Utrecht. (2018), Risk & Compliance Platform Europe

Dans son discours d’ouverture, Jack Kruf a plaidé en faveur d’un lien beaucoup plus fort entre le contenu des politiques et leur orientation. Compte tenu de la multitude d’intérêts et de parties prenantes, de la segmentation de l’expertise et des niveaux de gouvernement, ainsi que de la fragmentation des connaissances sur les enjeux, il estime que les autorités locales auraient tout intérêt à consacrer plus de temps à une clause de gouvernance ex ante.

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Vers l’e-citoyenneté et l’e-administration

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Quels risques pour les collectivités ? – Compte-rendu d’atelier / Towards e-citizenship and e-government: What are the risks for local authorities? – Workshop report

Gérard Combe* et Thomas Graiff** | 1 decembre 2016

L’édition 2016 du Congrès du Syndicat National des Directeurs Généraux des Collectivités Territoriales a permis à PRIMO France de présenter et rappeler lors d’un atelier l’importance des cyber-risques et les enjeux majeurs qu’ils représentent dans le secteur public, en partenariat avec Marsh France. • The 2016 edition of the National Union of Local Authority Chief Executives Congress provided PRIMO France with an opportunity to present and highlight, during a workshop, the importance of cyber risks and the major challenges they pose in the public sector, in partnership with Marsh France.

Le 14 octobre dernier, l’association PRIMO France et le courtier en assurances Marsh, étaient présents au 76ème Congrès du Syndicat National des Directeurs Généraux des Collectivités Territoriales à Antibes. Pendant l’atelier 16 « Vers de nouvelles pratiques : le citoyen, acteur du service public ? », modéré par Madame Fabienne Ihidope, DGS de la commune d’Hasparren, PRIMO et Marsh ont pu exposer aux directeurs présents les différentes manifestations du numérique dans les pratiques citoyennes ainsi que les enjeux des cyber-risques au sein des collectivités locales.

• On 14 October, the PRIMO France association and insurance broker Marsh attended the 76th Congress of the National Union of Local Authority Chief Executives in Antibes. During workshop 16, ‘Towards new practices: citizens as public service stakeholders?’, moderated by Ms. Fabienne Ihidope, Chief Executive Officer of the municipality of Hasparren, PRIMO and Marsh presented to the directors in attendance the various manifestations of digital technology in citizen practices, as well as the challenges of cyber risks within local authorities.

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