Reader Question 3. What to do about Waste and Mismanagement?
Question: “The Senior managers of my organization are more interested in being able to spend all of this years budget in order to justify an increased budget for next year… Is there anything that can be done?”
Answer: It depends on what the excess budget is being spent on. Management perks are clearly waste but a new computer system that increases productivity may be a legitimate investment. You won’t know if the computer system is waste until next year when you find out if it was actually implemented. I find the attitude of your senior management about justifying budget increases, which have little to do with the actual needs of the organization, reprehensible. This is more common than you may realize.
Your organization needs a Performance Budgeting system, which is currently being implemented in many states. This system is most efficient when it is based on accurate staffing requirements obtained from work measurement.
I fear from the nature of your complaint that you may not have the authority to implement the reforms that I have just described. You will probably have to wait for the changes to come about. Many state governments are currently addressing this problem.
