Lack of Budget Reforms
A budget is an estimation of expenditure and income for a set period. A budget is necessary to aid in the use of funds, especially public funds. A government budget helps in showing how federal funds will be used to serve the public and the source of the funds. It is essential to review how money is spent or obtained hence bringing about a change in budgeting. A budget reform helps in the review of how the government collects money and its plans for using it. The government budget has, however, seen a lack of budget reforms, which may be as a result of factors such as stages of budget reform and lack of budgetary theory.
For budget reforms to take place, different stages should be followed to ensure changes are correctly done. Reforms alter the balance, control, and management of the budget, whether intended or not. The process of budget reforms in the United States has undergone three stages, each of which paid attention to certain aspects of budgeting. The first stage is dated from the 1920s up to 1935, where there was a strong emphasis on the development of a system that would control expenditure adequately (Schick, 1966). The expenditure control formed the priority causing planning and management to be side-lined.
The second stage in the USA budget reform process was performance budgeting. Performance budgeting meant that the development of management, money allocation structure, budget preparation, and work measurement programs was given priority (Schick, 1966). The third stage was the introduction of PPB, Planning Programming Budgeting System, and the effort of institutionalizing it. PPB aimed to link planning and budgeting while taking into account welfare economics. PPB has, however, evolved and started using technologies and current information to its advantage (Schick, 1966).
The three reform stages took a long period to shape the budget as it is today. The long period taken to cause such reforms on the budget is a significant contribution to the lack of budget reforms. Since the budget must be made through different stages, the process of reforming a budget may be viewed as lengthy and time consuming, promoting the lack of budget reforms. Apart from the steps of budget reforms being lengthy and time-consuming, the lack of budgetary theory also has a massive effect on the lack of budgetary changes.
The budgetary theory is the theory behind the budgeting process that should be followed by the government when forming a budget. The lack of a budget theory means that there is no clear directive of how budgeting of funds should be carried out (Key, 1940). Since there is no budget theory, there is no apparent reason to state why a particular sector should be allocated money while another gets less money than it (Key, 1940). It becomes challenging to explain the need for specific areas to be granted more money than others since there is no define theory.
Since there is no budget theory to govern why a particular public sector should be given more funds, the government can refuse reforms to maintain order. The government can reject budget reforms to avoid frequent demands for more allocation of funds to a particular sector and being often swayed to make changes now and then only because it is possible. The lack of budget theory, therefore, has a significant influence on the lack of budgetary reforms since there is no clear definition of what should be followed; hence they avoid them with the aim of not disrupting the current system of allocation that is used.
There is a lack of budget reports due to a lack of budget theory and the necessary steps that are required to be taken. With the bid to save time and keep everything in order, the government might refuse to carry out reforms to maintain the law and the control it has on the budget. It is, however, necessary for the government to make budget reforms since times do change, and the budget needs of yesterday are not the same as those of today or the future to come. A solution to the lack of budget reforms would be to minimize on time taken to implement stages of budget reforms and embrace the formation of a budget theory. Lack of budget reforms is harmful since it does not take into account needs changing and what should be prioritized as a result of changes taking place.
References
Key, V. O. (n.d.). The American Political Science Review. The Lack of a Budgetary Theory, 34(6), 1137–1144. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1948194
Schick, A. (n.d.). Planning-Programming-Budgeting System: A Symposium. The Road to PPB: The Stages of Budget Reform, 26(6), 243–258. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/973296