The Budget Cycle
Examine the pros and cons of a lawenforcement administration budgeting process of your choice. How is thebudgeting cycle used? Are jobs outsourced? Is outside funding utilized? Doesthe budget align with the goals of the community in regard to fighting crimeand quality of life issues?
A individual makes their choice to enter law enforcement for many differentreasons. But, being the individual who prepares a budget for a law enforcementagency isn’t one of those. “Making out budget preparation is one of the most importantadministrative tasks of a public safety organization” (Stuart, n.d., p.1). Every law enforcement agency, or agency has to make sure they account for future orpresent costs. No two agencies are the same. The most popular budget is theline item. There are many budgets such as Zero baaed, and Performance. It isthe controlling authority who has the final say to a budget. Each agency coversthe internal part of a budget different. In the city of Madison Wisconsin foundthat out. The year 2005 they had overexpended there “operating budget by about one million dollars” (Stuart, n.d.,p.1). This was explained as routine by the mayor’s spokes person. There arethose agencies that have to abide and live within a amount approved by thecontrolling authority. A sound budget preparation would be necessary.
. The law enforcementadministration budgeting process of the public sectors has various pros andcons. The budgeting process provides several advantages just like other controlmethods. The major strength of the law enforcement administration budgetingprocess in the public sector is that it enables the improvement of resourceallocation such that there is equitable distribution of resources and that allrequests are justified. The budgets also help in transforming strategic plansinto reality by ensuring that the resources, revenues as well as activities aredefined so that the strategic plan can be carried out successfully (Hope & Fraser, 2003).
The budgets are also used incarrying out corrective actions and this is normally made possible throughrelocations. Budgets also have limitations which are follows: some budgets maycreate politics as well as competition for scarce resources. Some budgets maylack flexibility and this may reduce the creativity as well as innovation tothe subordinates making it hard to acquire money for new generated ideas. Thebudget cycle is the period of time that the budget will be operational from thetime of creation to the time of evaluation. It has four parts which are asfollows preparation and submission, consent, implementation, audit andassessment. These sections are very vital tools that determine the success of abusiness (Wildavsky,1986)
Most ofthe tasks in the budgeting sector require professionals and hence mostorganizations prefer to outsource those activities. Outside funding are notalways utilized especially in public sectors since in most cases there isembezzlement of funds by the people in charge of the budgeting process. Thebudget does not align with the goals of the community in regard to crime andquality of life issues since we find that such issues are allocated the leastfunds due to the greed of the people in charge of the budgeting process andhence there is an increase in crime rates since there are no funds or ratherenough funds to curb the crime
It is hard for mayors, commissionsand other administrators to deny support (and hopefully funding) whenindisputable justification exists (Stuart, n.d.). There are those times when your budget cannotbe approved nor full funding of your budget no matter the justification.
References
Hope,J., & Fraser, R. (2003). Beyond budgeting: How managers can break freefrom the annual performance trap.
Stuart, R. D. (n.d.). PDF] Budgeting Basics forLaw Enforcement – Institute … Retrieved fromwww.icje.org/articles/BudgetingBasics.pdf
Wildavsky,A. B. (1986). Budgeting: A comparative theory of budgetary processes.New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers.
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