The cash management function is generally housed in the finance office
and can be the responsibility of a finance director or a treasurer, depending
on the size and structure of the local government. One employee may handle
the entire treasury function or several employees may be assigned to portions
of this function. Larger governments, for example, may have treasury
staff devoted to collecting revenues and other staff focused on investing
funds, and assign disbursements and accounting and record-keeping functions
to other staff members in the finance department.
The objectives of cash management involve bringing funds into the government’s
treasury as quickly as possible, paying the funds out as efficiently
as possible, and making effective use of those funds until they are needed for
operating expenses. On occasion, a government may find that it has a revenue
shortfall during the fiscal year and may need to borrow funds to bridge
this gap. The amount and timing of the borrowing may be the responsibility
of the finance official in charge of cash management or may fall to
another staff member such as the budget officer. Another related objective
of cash management is to provide accurate and timely records to document
the government’s cash management activities. An example of the cash management
cycle is shown in figure 2.1. The objectives of cash management are
further explained in this chapter