"So I was faced with making decisions on things and places I had never heard of, and had absolutely no understanding of the arcane public accounting concepts that they used: DEL and RDEL and CDEL. They trip off the tongue now."

Vince Cable, Business secretary (2010–14)

2. Construct a framework within which to manage your budget

Different departments offer differing levels of financial oversight to their ministers. In many departments, ministers may be expected to make large spending commitments quickly, without all the details they might want to see. Ministers should not expect to have the time to approve every item of departmental expenditure, but they should establish clear standards for spending decisions and clear mechanisms for oversight.

For example, core to the success of DfID before its merger with FCO was a rigorous process of financial oversight. Former secretary of state Andrew Mitchell has described how he overhauled the department’s bidding process, with funding granted to external suppliers on the promise of measurable outcomes, like getting an additional 10,000 girls into school in Ethiopia. Justine Greening, Mitchell’s successor, adapted the approval process for project business cases, assigning batches to junior ministers to review, and initiating a standardised review process for projects that were facing delivery difficulties.

Different approaches will be needed for different ministers. It is important to decide upon a system that works for you, giving you adequate oversight of your budget without allowing the minutiae of departmental expenditure to prevent you from seeing the bigger picture. New secretaries of state can help prevent the departmental machinery from grinding to a halt by empowering junior ministers to take spending decisions in their areas of responsibility.