The job of the Investment Decision Maker is to commit funds to the program or project. Senior management’s dedication to the program, project, and the needs for regularity, propriety, and value for money get embodied in this job.
The IDM’s job service Role
The Investment Decision Maker (IDM) role gets employed in many ways in programs and projects. It also has unique responsibilities in construction procurement projects as part of the Achieving Excellence strategy. The IDM must commit funding to a program or project.
IDM responsibilities can get combined with the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) job. It allows one person to fulfil both roles. When funding gets confined to a single department, a single person may fill the job. The IDM may also be a communal responsibility shared by the Sponsoring Group, which provides the mandate and resources to support the project. The latter perspective gets offered in the Managing Successful Programmes is a framework that analyses an organization’s overall program and project context.
The scale and complexity of the program or project and the political sensitivity of the initiative will impact the level at which investment decisions get made. For initiatives or projects inside a single department, a Permanent Secretary or Accounting Officer at the head of the departmental chain of command may be appropriate. Senior management’s dedication to the program or initiative. The principles of regularity, propriety, and value for money get represented by this function, according to Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal.
An IDM must have the following skills and characteristics.
- grasp the financial underpinnings of the business and how the program or project will fit into it
- Analyze and guide program or project business cases
- have the authority or seniority to make financial decisions
The IDM is in charge of:
- ensuring that a program or initiative has a credible and inexpensive business case
- guaranteeing that the business case is valid for the duration of the program or project
- putting in place and following the measures of control outlined in the Managing Public Money NI advice and other applicable Dear Accounting Officer letters
- He should agree on the appointment of an SRO, with sufficient authority to guarantee that the appropriate resources are in place to implement the program or project and offer proper support for the program manager, where the responsibilities of IDM and SRO are separate.
- ensuring that the NI Gateway Review Process get properly implemented
- designing and monitoring a delegation plan that clearly defines individual tasks
- keeping the top of the organization’s visible and consistent commitment to deliver
When approving money for a program or project, the IDM is involved. The Sponsoring Group often fulfills this duty collectively in programs, according to Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal. It may get combined with the job of the SRO in projects. It’s critical to understand the difference between having the authority to disburse cash and responsibility for good outcomes if the two organizations unite. Business cases, particularly affordability difficulties, shall be evaluated by departmental finance branches before any approvals by the Department of Finance in programs and projects.
