Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca

Programme Overview

Effective intergovernmental fiscal transfers are essential for funding equitable local basic services in decentralising nations.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ This four-day professional programme in Casablanca equips subnational and central government officials with practical tools to manage grant architectures efficiently. Delegates explore how predictable resource allocations directly enable local councils to finance primary education, basic healthcare, and community infrastructure. The course blends institutional finance frameworks with real-world public financial management practices, addressing bottlenecks that hinder local budget execution.

Participants examine formula-based resource distribution methodologies and conditional grant mechanisms aligned with international public financial management standards. Through practical exercises, officials assess how conditional and unconditional funds transition from national treasuries to district accounts. Emphasis is placed on performance orientation, budget discipline, and fiscal transparency. Officials analyse how robust intergovernmental mechanisms incentivise administrative compliance and local revenue mobilisation while mitigating grant capture and discretionary fund diversion at all administrative levels.

The programme bridges central policy design with subnational accountability through social accountability instruments, including citizen report cards and participatory community scorecards. Participants will examine models of cross-tier coordination, internal control integration, and audit compliance across local councils. By studying realistic scenarios, delegates develop viable strategies to balance local council autonomy with national standards, ensuring that devolved fiscal resources translate into verifiable, high-quality public service delivery in their respective administrative jurisdictions.

Public sector decentralisation initiatives increasingly demand measurable improvements in the reach and reliability of essential public services.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ This course directly supports the institutional objectives of the Accountable Governance for Basic Service Delivery project by addressing persistent operational challenges in subnational resource management. As governments and multilateral development financiers emphasise domestic accountability and performance-linked disbursements, subnational authorities require robust capabilities to execute budgets transparently, justify conditional allocations, and substantiate service outcomes using credible community-level evidence.

Delivered by Risalat Consultants International in Casablanca, Morocco, it combines expert-led sessions, real cases and group work, so that participants can apply what they learn in their own institution.

The Programme Strengthens Institutional Capability

• Principles of vertical and horizontal fiscal balance in devolved governance
• Designing formula-based equalisation, unconditional, and conditional grant systems
• Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) subnational assessment methodologies
• Analysing local expenditure mandates against statutory revenue assignments
• Diagnostic review: Identifying disbursement bottlenecks in central-local transfer pipelines
• Developing transparent institutional performance assessment criteria for local councils
• Linking minimum access conditions and performance measures to fiscal disbursements
• Local government budget formulation, commitment controls, and cash-flow forecasting
• Fraud risk assessment and fraud risk registers
• Design and testing of internal controls
• The Three Lines model and the role of oversight
• Audit planning, evidence and documentation

It is designed for ministry of Local Government policy officers, local council chief administrators, subnational finance directors and treasurers and others who want practical, current skills in fraud, audit and internal control.

The Growing Importance of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca

Public bodies and donor-financed projects are expected to show that funds are used for their intended purpose. Auditors, oversight bodies and financiers increasingly look beyond the financial statements to the controls, records and behaviours behind them.

Fraud and control weaknesses rarely come from one failure. They grow where roles are unclear, records are incomplete and warning signs are not followed up. Teams that understand how fraud happens, and how controls stop it, protect both their institution and the people it serves.

Organisations increasingly require professionals capable of:

• Identify and rate fraud and control risks in their own processes
• Design controls that are proportionate and testable
• Gather and document reliable audit evidence
• Recognise red flags early and escalate them correctly
• Turn findings into practical, agreed actions

Strong fraud, audit and internal control systems help organisations:

• Reduce losses and ineligible expenditure
• Pass external audits with fewer findings
• Strengthen trust with financiers and citizens
• Respond to allegations in a fair and documented way

This Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca programme brings these elements together in a practical format, so that participants understand not only what good practice looks like but also how to introduce it in their own setting, with the people and resources they have.

Who Should Attend This Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training?

This programme is designed for:

• Ministry of Local Government policy officers
• Local council chief administrators
• Subnational finance directors and treasurers
• Ministry of Finance intergovernmental fiscal relations analysts
• Public Accounts Committee researchers and parliamentary staff
• Donor-financed project coordination unit specialists
• Decentralisation programme monitoring and evaluation leads
• Local government internal auditors and compliance officers
• Community service delivery coordinators
• Regional planning and development authority officers
• Internal auditors and audit managers
• Finance managers and accountants

The programme suits experienced professionals as well as those moving into new responsibilities. Groups that mix institutions and countries are encouraged, because participants learn a great deal from each other’s experience.

Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training Objectives

Upon successful completion of this Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training, participants will be able to:

• Design equitable formula-based grant allocation mechanisms for subnational governments
• Apply Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability framework indicators to local budget execution
• Structure performance-linked conditional transfer systems to incentivise basic service delivery
• Implement participatory community scorecards to measure local citizen satisfaction
• Strengthen internal control frameworks across local authority treasury and procurement operations
• Reconcile central ministry fiscal targets with devolved local council investment priorities
• Formulate institutional action plans to reduce delays in subnational grant disbursement
• Explain how and why fraud happens, using recognised fraud risk models
• Carry out a fraud and control risk assessment for a real process
• Map controls to risks using the Three Lines model

Each objective is practised during the programme through exercises, cases or group work, so that participants leave able to do it, not only to describe it.

Programme Contents and Structure

Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training Methodology

The training employs an adult learning methodology focused on applied public financial management.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ Participants analyse technical briefs, formula spreadsheets, and institutional case materials reflecting decentralised administrations in developing contexts. Facilitators lead peer-to-peer working sessions, practical simulation clinics, and interactive problem-solving exercises. Working in small jurisdictional teams, officials systematically construct formula allocation models and community scorecard workflows, generating concrete institutional artefacts that can be adapted and implemented immediately within their respective ministries and local councils.

The programme combines:

• Expert-led sessions on current practice
• Regional and international case studies
• Group work and practical exercises
• Simulations and role plays where relevant
• Discussion of participants' own challenges
• Peer learning across institutions and countries
• Practical tools and templates to take back to work
• Daily reflection and action planning

Before the programme, a short pre-assessment helps the facilitators understand each participant’s role and priorities, so that examples and exercises can be adjusted to the group. Each day ends with a short reflection in which participants note what they will apply at work.

Expected Outcomes

Upon completion of this Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training, participants will be able to:

• Technical capacity to formulate and calibrate multi-variable conditional grant allocation formulas
• Operational capability to run participatory community scorecard exercises for basic service units
• Enhanced proficiency in monitoring subnational budget execution using standardised PEFA indicators
• Draft framework for a transparent, performance-linked transfer mechanism for local councils
• Standardised reporting procedures that reduce statutory compliance delays between tiers of government
• Actionable roadmap to address fiduciary vulnerabilities in local procurement and cash management
• Assess fraud and control risks in their own processes
• Design and test proportionate controls

Participants leave with a personal action plan and practical tools they can use in their institution from the first week back. Institutions that send several participants can use the programme to agree shared methods and templates across teams, which makes improvements easier to sustain.

Institutional Application of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training

This programme supports organisations in strengthening:

• Fraud and corruption risk management
• Internal control frameworks
• Audit and oversight arrangements
• Follow-up of audit findings
• Integrity and reporting channels

Participants return with practical tools to improve:

• Risk registers and control maps
• Audit planning and testing
• Evidence and documentation
• Reporting to management and boards
• Prevention of ineligible expenditure

The programme is built so that learning moves from the classroom into the institution. Participants work on their own processes and documents where possible, and leave with an action plan that their managers can review and support.

Regional Relevance & Application

Europe

European institutions apply fraud, audit and internal control within detailed regulatory frameworks and reform agendas. Participants from Europe can compare their practice with colleagues from other regions and test how established methods work under different conditions.

Africa

Across Africa, ministries, agencies and project teams working in fraud, audit and internal control increasingly operate alongside donor-financed programmes that expect clear systems and evidence. The programme helps participants adapt good practice to the institutions and resources they work with.

Middle East

In the Middle East, national development strategies and diversification plans place growing demands on fraud, audit and internal control. Participants explore how to build the capability these plans need inside public bodies and companies.

Asia

Institutions across Asia combine rapid growth with ambitious modernisation programmes. Participants from Asia can share their experience of scaling systems quickly and learn from approaches used elsewhere.

Pacific

Small island and Pacific states face particular constraints of size, distance and capacity. The programme highlights practical, proportionate approaches to fraud, audit and internal control that suit smaller institutions.

Holding the programme in Casablanca, Morocco brings participants together away from their daily pressures, so they can compare how fraud, audit and internal control is handled in different settings. The same programme can also be delivered in-house for one institution, in its own country or online, with cases taken from its current work.

Host Country Profile – Morocco

Training programmes and study tours in Casablanca suit government officials, project teams and professionals focusing on international trade, maritime transport, banking and regional economic development.

Studying away from their own country gives participants time to focus, a fresh view of their own institution and the chance to build a network with colleagues from other countries.

Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training Deliverables

Participants receive support before, during and after the programme, so that preparation, learning and follow-up form one continuous experience.

Before the Programme

• Participant Pre-Assessment
• Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Readiness Assessment
• Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Resource Pack
• Preparatory Reading Materials
• Complimentary Visa Support & Advisory

During the Programme

• Airport Pickup & Welcome Assistance
• Accommodation with Breakfast
• Welcome Networking Dinner
• Risalat Training Kit (Bag, Bottle, Mug, T-Shirt, Cap, Passport Cover, Pens, Notebook, Magnet & Keychain)
• Comprehensive Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca Training Manual
• Fraud Risk Register Template
• Control Mapping Matrix
• Audit Evidence Checklist
• Findings and Follow-up Tracker
• Practical Workshops & Simulations
• Group Discussions & Peer Learning
• Daily Lunch and Refreshments
• Full Access to Training Venue Facilities
• Mini Pad / Tablet with Digital Learning Materials
• Field Visit (where applicable)
• Entertaining City Tour

After the Programme

• Certificate of Completion
• Risalat Programme Participation Recognition Award
• Post-Training Reference Materials
• Fraud Risk Self-Assessment Guide
• Control Testing Checklist
• Post-Training Support & Follow-Up Guidance
• Programme Report

Institutions can also request a tailored in-house version of this programme, delivered at their premises or online. Request a proposal.

Common Challenges in Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca, And How This Training Helps

How can institutions identify and rate fraud and control risks in their own processes?

The programme addresses this directly on the first day (Day 1: Architecture of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Systems), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions design controls that are proportionate and testable?

The programme addresses this directly on the second day (Day 2: Performance-Linked Transfers and Subnational Budget Execution), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions gather and document reliable audit evidence?

The programme addresses this directly on the third day (Day 3: Social Accountability and Community-Level Service Monitoring), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions recognise red flags early and escalate them correctly?

The programme addresses this directly on the fourth day (Day 4: Institutional Implementation Plans and Reporting Frameworks), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions turn findings into practical, agreed actions?

The programme addresses this directly on the first day (Day 1: Architecture of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Systems), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where does the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Local Service Delivery in Casablanca programme take place?

It runs from 8 Feb 2027 to 11 Feb 2027, in Casablanca, Morocco. The registration deadline is shown at the top of this page.

Who should attend?

The programme is designed for ministry of Local Government policy officers, local council chief administrators, subnational finance directors and treasurers, ministry of Finance intergovernmental fiscal relations analysts, and others who want practical skills in fraud, audit and internal control.

Will I receive a certificate?

Yes. Participants who complete the programme receive a Certificate of Completion from Risalat Consultants International.

Can this programme be delivered for our institution only?

Yes. We can deliver a tailored in-house version at your premises, in another city or online, built around your own cases. Use the proposal request on this page.

Do I need prior experience in fraud, audit and internal control?

No specialist background is required beyond experience in a related role. A short pre-assessment helps the facilitators adapt the sessions to the group.

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