Finance Policy Development | by Sabun Ou and Daniel Bey

Pictured (left to right): Penny Gonnay, PFI Program Manager, Asia-Pacific; Sabun Ou, Executive Director, PF Cambodia; Daniel Bey, PFI Regional Director, Asia-Pacific.

Since 2021, PFI partnered with Prison Fellowship Cambodia (PFC) to embark on a Capacity Building initiative called Program Partner Coaching. One of the objectives was to revise the financial policy and ensure its accurate and accountable implementation across the organization. Why? PFC had previously encountered challenges related to poor financial management. This was exacerbated by leadership transitions and lack of oversight from the Board of Directors.

PFC actively engaged with the PFI Asia Pacific Regional Office to overcome these issues by identifying the root causes and developing measures to address them. We recognize that the purpose of revising the financial policy is to bring greater clarity of the roles, authority and responsibilities for essential financial management processes and decisions.

After the revised financial policy was drafted, it went through a review process by the Management team, Board and PFI. It was then adopted by the Board of Directors for implementation. Below are some of the revisions made:

1. Cap the approval limit of expenses by the Executive Director and Management team, while ensuring that higher expenses are approved by the Board of Directors.
2. To ensure accountability and transparency, authorized signatories for banking include 1 representative from the Management team and 1 from the Board of Directors.
3. Monthly financial report must be reviewed and approved by the Chairperson and Treasurer of the Board.
4. Adopted e-banking approval process which saves time and creates transparency (digital records of transactions).

The revision of financial policy boosted the engagement between the Management team and the Board of Directors. Staff were also trained on the policy so that they will be in compliance to it. By developing a financial policy, we believe that it will ultimately promote a culture of integrity, trust and transparency among our staff, volunteers and donors.

Sabun Ou is the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Cambodia. 

Daniel Bey is the Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, Prison Fellowship International.