A Public Agency Budget

The Budget

Is a proposed action plan for government, defined in financial terms, that give direction to the execution of policies and programs. A public budget is:

A fiscal statement describing the revenues and expenditures of all governmental units:( see part of the Corpus Christi Health Department budget ) and a mechanism for controlling, managing, planning, and evaluating the activities of each governmental unit.  Why does this budget speak to problems of budget reductions?  Thinks about the major componenets of this budget before looking at the line item budget below.

A budget is political in content. It represents government's ranking of many activities. It reflects the relative strengths of competing groups and the nature of the compromises reached among competing values. A budget announces the direction in which government intends to go in the near future, usually in the next fiscal year.  Look at a section of the Chesterfield Health Department Budget.
There are three distinct purposes for which budgets have been used:

• Control
• Management, and
• Planning

Fiscal operations

Accounting

A bookkeeping function that collects, classifies, records, aggregates, preserves, and analyzes financial data. Accounting is a major element of the budgetary process and of the manager's responsibility. It centers on an orderly arrangement for the control of expenditures and for their proper relationship to receipts. The accounting process is divided into three categories:

(1) recording, the assembling of a permanent record of activities that can be referred to in case of dispute,
(2) reporting detailed 'presentation of activities: and
(3) system of independent evaluation.

Accounting includes a data processing system and an internal control system.

The oldest type of accounting is cash accounting. Receipt transactions are recorded at the time funds are received from various sources. Disbursements are recorded when checks are issued or paid.

Auditing

A process of analyzing an organization's accounting records, systems of data processing, and internal financial control.   What have you read about audits of state & federal agencies recently?

Auditing includes:

1. procedural checks on the accuracy of the accounting system in use;.

2. study to determine accuracy in the operation of the system, Including the validation of inventories and existing equipment;./li>

3. an inquiry into whether proper legal authority exists to carry on activities being performed.

4. determination of the adequacy of the internal control system.

5. checking for possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement; and

6. evaluation of the overall effectiveness of agency programs. Auditing's basic objective is to verify that all financial transactions have been properly handled and Recorded in compliance with legal provisions.

Central purchasing

Vesting authority in an auxiliary division to buy, maintain stocks, and distribute supplies and materials for others in the agency.  Central purchasing replaces the system in, which each administrative unit purchases it own supplies.  In some cases, each unit is given a budget for supplies, which it purchases from the central unit through a credit transfer system.  What do you think the advantages of a central purchasing agreement would be?  What about disadvantages