Budgeting Process Is a Waste of Time and Valuable Resources Essay

A calculate is a plan for financing an enterprise or politics during a certain(prenominal) period, which is prep ard and submitted by a responsible executive director to a phonation body (or other duly constituted agent) whose approval and authorization are necessary before the plan may be executed. In the persona of Uganda, it is a financing plan for one year prepared by the electric chair and approved by Parliament. Some scholars apply argued that budgets are a waste of time and valuable resources.But this statement is not simply true as the budget motion has some very reclaimable roles in public administration as shown below- Financial control. political relation of necessity to be able to exercise control over the ministries and departs i. e. to beat sure that the ministries are keeping to plan and that necessary actions smoke be taken to put them back on track when needed. Government needs to have control tools to make sure that financial plans and targets are u niverse achieved, and the best tool is the budget.The budget is a plan set tabu in numbers, which enables the government to exercise control. The difference between what is budgeted to happen and what rattling happens is termed a variance. A favorable variance means that ministry or segment is doing salubrious while an adverse variance shows those that are not. Allocation of scrimpy resources. One of the great(p)gest tasks of government is the allocation of scare resources. This is often done by means of the budget. Resource allocation refers to the distribution of resources, and in particular finance, from the center to off-base levels.Beca occasion the budgetary fulfill is often participatory, it enable the various ministries and local governments to spot their needs and present them to the centre. Programme Coordination. The budget outgrowth serves very well to coordinate government departments and ministries. It is at this budget process that the government can get to know who is doing what and at what cost. Government can for example be able to tell that water for irrigation has been covered under the Ministry of Agriculture and should whence be omitted from the Ministry of Water and Environment.Communication. The public budget serves as a confabulation tool to a variety of audiences. The general public, civil society, and legislators all percolate information from the budget process. Once the budget has been approved by the general assembly and signed into law, the ministries and other agencies become the information recipients. Importantly, each of these actors perceives the budget differently. budget also communicates upwards. Ministries and various agencies must prepare a budget that persuades the electric chair that they book him and his manifesto.At this level of the process, the information in the budget document must explain why a program deserves continued maintenance, how it meets the pre locationnts policy priorities, and how well it is using the resources it has been given. After a ministry budget has been incorporated into the national budget the primary audience for communicating information shifts from the executive to the legislative branch of government. The primary goal at this microscope stage is to bequeath information to legislature with the recommendations and analysis that serve as the innovation for their decisions.Perhaps the most important purpose for public budgeting is to communicate a ministrys intentions and performance to the citizens. The media also plays a major role in presenting budgets to the citizens. The key events in the budget processes and budget documents must serve to support a mass communication task. Successful communication helps to build legitimacy for the government and its programs. Budgeting as a Governing Tool. Public budgeting has become an progressively central galvanizing force for both the administrative and policy side of governance.This process begins w ith the preparation of program-level, agency-level, and then ministry-level requests for the coming fiscal year. This budget process presents a political platform for the selection of policy choices and for the allocation of resources to support those choices. The development of a national budget provides the foundation from which to organize a coordinated response to these complex problems and needs. Financial Accountability. Reflecting its roots, the budget process provides the tools to go steady financial accountability.Legislative oversight and audit functions are important activities that provide an opportunity for ministries to award that they have complied with legislative directives. This compliance provides assurances to both elect officials and to the public that the ministry and its programs are serving the public pursuit. Influence on the frugality . The spending and taxation policies of the central government and local governments have economical impact. Of cours e, the central government, with its sh11 trillion for 2012/2013 has far more impact on the parsimony than billions the local governments spend.From an economists point of view, the budget serves the following combination of economic objectives * funds social service programs for those in need, thus increase the demand for private sector goods and services * reflects tax policy that affects headache and individuals * reflects and funds the enforcement of commercial, transportation, land use and environmental regulations that affect the business humour * funds education and other training programs that enhance the countrys human and economic resources * funds routine purchases (like stationary) and capital projects (like Bujagali dam) that stimulate economic activity * serves to redistribute wealth across the countrys residents and * Supports the government as the largest single employer. Public Budgeting as Political tool. The budget process presents a series of opportunities for elected officials and interest groups. The perspectives and needs of elected officials and interest groups may frequently contrast with the values and hopes of most public administrators. accord these contrasting needs is a useful key to understanding the budget process. Elected officials must respond to their constituents needs and demonstrate a record of leadership. MPs must demonstrate an ability to use government to solve problems in their constituencies. Survival of an MP rests on this ability. In contrast, civil servants often rely on public service and professed(prenominal) values to guide their sense of action and accomplishment. For example, at the ministry of finance, the minister (who is not elected) and budget analysts are primarily committed to acquiring the resources necessary to admit the efficient and effective delivery of programs, not delivering on promises to constituents.The budget process provides leadership opportunities to bridge and reconcile these competin g perspectives. The promises of an election campaign must be quickly translated into policies and programs. Campaign goals and visions must be translated into legislation and directives that can correct and reorient the ministries. The budget also provides an opportunity for the executive to engage with the legislature. When executive and legislative branches are divided, compromise is usually necessary to meet the constitutive(a) duty shared by the Executive and legislative branches i. e the prexy must present a budget to the legislature and the parliament is constitutionally required to enact a budget. Waste of time.On many instances, however, budgets may appear of a waste of time when they are not adhered too. In Uganda for example, The Monitor newspaper reported that the budget for Sate House had jumped from Shs66. 1 billion approved in September last year to Shs204. 4 billion. On the day to day running, there always unforeseen consequences that governments have to cater for and often need extra resources beyond what is budgeted for. An example in Uganda was the Bududa landslides, In the US we have seen incidences such Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005. But that is only a perception. Budgets play a very big role in public management and administration.