Even 30+ years ago, when I worked for the government, that was the unwritten rule, and you were in deep water if you failed to carry it out.
7:35 PM
Anonymous said...
If that is occurring, it's a failure at the highest levels of that agency.
You do NOT "lose" funding that you don't use. It's been YEARS since individual agency budgets were based on prior year budgets. If any agency hasn't spent weeks preparing a spending plan that justified every dollar requested (compared to mission requirements), then that agency needs to be completely de-funded until they do.
Yes, I'm a budget geek with a federal agency. Yes, I spend weeks justifying every damn thing in my annual request. Yes, even though I get everything I ask for (good justifications help!), I still end up with unexpended funds that I willingly return to higher authority.
QOTD: "I guess there's no way to really check this out but my girlfriend who works for the federal government was just informed that she has to cancel her vacation planned for October. The 2011 fiscal year ends in September and there is money left in her department's budget so her boss is planning a conference in Boston for employees from all over the country. This happens every year at the same time because the money is 'lost' unless the money is used so managers are 'encouraged' to use the money up and travel is the easiest/quickest way. My friend worked for another federal agency and the same thing happened at the same time. As I said, I guess there's no way to officially check this out but it cheezed me off sufficiently to write." --J.P. via email
"Larwyn's Linx: Debate recap -- Social Security was the defining moment"
3 Comments -
Thanks for linking to my Teleprompter page!
10:14 AM
Even 30+ years ago, when I worked for the government, that was the unwritten rule, and you were in deep water if you failed to carry it out.
7:35 PM
If that is occurring, it's a failure at the highest levels of that agency.
You do NOT "lose" funding that you don't use. It's been YEARS since individual agency budgets were based on prior year budgets. If any agency hasn't spent weeks preparing a spending plan that justified every dollar requested (compared to mission requirements), then that agency needs to be completely de-funded until they do.
Yes, I'm a budget geek with a federal agency. Yes, I spend weeks justifying every damn thing in my annual request. Yes, even though I get everything I ask for (good justifications help!), I still end up with unexpended funds that I willingly return to higher authority.
And of course... THEY take the conferences.
10:53 PM