【正文】 f 1999 – see Sections 36 to 45), but in the Treasury Regulations for Departments, Trading Entities, Constitutional Institutions and Public Entities (National Treasury, 2005:7) it is prescribed that each department must have a chief financial officer who is in general responsible “to assist the accounting officer in fulfilling the duties of financial management of the institution including the exercise of sound budgeting and budgetary control practices。 the operation of internal controls and the timely production of financial reports”. The Department of Correctional Services is divided in to six regions. Each region is divided into management areas, while management areas are divided into six different ponents. Each ponent has managers who are responsible for ensuring that the Department achieves its aim.The role of accounting officer For the purpose of this section, ?financial management practices? are defined and demarcated as the practices performed by the accounting officer in the areas of budgeting, supply chain management, movable asset management, and control. The heads of national and provincial departments are the accounting officers of their departments. They must personally give account of all the financial transactions and activities of their departments (Burger amp。 Woods, 2008:317). To execute their functions properly, accounting officers must have full control over the finances and other activities of their department (Thornhill, cited in Gildenhuys, 1993:157). The accounting officers obviously do not keep the accounts and other financial records personally – they are not the bookkeepers of the department. They also do not physically pile the draft budget of the department. The accounting officer is also the Minister?s chief advisor on policy and departmental financial matters (Burger amp。 Woods, 2008:318).Trajectories in financial management reform mention that budget reforms have been widespread, and have been driven by two particular external pressures. The first was the need to restrain the growth of public expenditure for macroeconomic reasons. The second pressure concerned performance improvement within the public sector – for types of budgeting and financial management that would stimulate greater efficiency, effectiveness, higher quality or some mixture of the three. Taken together, these pressures have led to what in effect has been an expansion in the scope or purpose of budgeting. Instead of a situation where budgets were mainly a process by which annual financial allocations were incrementally adjusted. The accounting officer has the following two functions: the preparation and submission of his/her department?s draft budget to the treasury, and the execution of the approved budget of his/her department (Gildenhuys, 1993:157). Budgeting is part of the organisational planning process, which starts with the aim and the mission of an institution (Pauw et al., 2002). Through the strategic management process, toplevel managers develop the strategic plans which involve a process of developing mission and longterm objectives, and determining in advance how they will be acplished (Nieuwenhuizen amp。 Rossouw, 2008:52). The strategic plan leads to the operational plan, indicating how the institution will conduct its activities on a daytoday basis. The strategic plan defines a broad set of goals for the organisation. Generally, strategic plans do not have specific financial targets。 however, they set the stage for specific, detailed budgets that will be established to achieve the goals (Finkler, 2001:27).For the purpose of this thesis the focus is on movable assets。 the acquisition of capital assets can most certainly exert an effect on an organisation?s petitive advantage over the long term. Capital equipment is characterised by large expenditure and nonrecurring expenditure. 167。 Large expenditure: Purchasing capital equipment usually requires a relatively large capital outlay, which may sometimes amount to millions of rands and which may have particular financial implications. Buying capital equipment can therefore be regarded as an investment which is financed from longterm, rather than from working, capital. It is important to consider not only the purchase price of capital equipment, but also the total cost of ownership (Hugo et al., 2006:321). 167。 Nonrecurring expenditure: Capital equipment is usually purchased at irregular intervals. It is used up gradually in the production process, rather than as a part of the end product. Owing to the relatively long lifespan of equipment, it could take several years before it needs to be replaced and, at the time of replacement, old equipment could prove to be technologically obsolete. If the correct purchasing decision is made, capital equipment generates profits for the organisation. Incorrect decisions may have disastrous consequences for the enterprise, since it will not be able to sell capital equipment over the short term. For the above reason, according to Burt, Dobler and Starling (as cited in Hugo et al., 2006:321), top management should consider the acquisition of capital equipment, with care. The role of Chief Financial Officer For the purpose of this section, ?financial management practices? are defined and demarcated as the practices performed by the chief financial officer in the areas of budgeting, supply chain management, movable asset management and control.A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a person who is exclusively responsible for the financial administration and financial recordkeeping, and who is directly responsible to the accounting officer (Burger, 2008:80). According to Du Preez (as cited in Lewis, 2005:33), the responsibilities of the CFO include the following: evaluation of existing (and development of new) systems and procedures for financial and risk management and internal control 167。initiation and coordination of strategic planning 167。budgeting, with