What would you do if a government department (or a number thereof) consistently underspent their budget?
If you said stop giving them so much money and cut the taxes that resulted in government having so much money in the first place, well done. That’s what I would have said.
If, however, you muttered something along the lines of the money not spent could have been “used to address a range of needs rather than being left to accumulate”, then plz to STFU and stop spending my money kthxbye.
If a government department – the single most wasteful organisation known to man – can’t spend their budget, then clearly that budget is clearly too large. And thusly they shouldn’t be getting that money. If that holds across all departments, then clearly the entire government is getting too much money, and should cut down on it. Which means cutting each and every one of us lucky taxpayers should be getting it back.
But I’ll not be holding my breath for it…
Ah this is only coming to light now because in previous years any money left in everyone elses budget was given to IT because they had spent all their budget in the first week of the new fiscal year to ensure that it didnt get cut – this heady period, or “End of Year Spend” was marvelous! “Do we really need 4 new Severs?” “Im sure we can find something to do – get it spec’d get it ordered and if it cant be delivered b4 X then get a box here with a delivery note saying it is here! Oh and order 40 new pcs as well – and i need a new 24″ monitor and dvd burner and… and… and… and get them for yourself as well” Suppliers and departments all rushing to create and fulfil orders – the worst part of it was when we got better prices meaning the money could go further and more stuff needed to be bought!
Course now that they changed the way IT equipment is bought the end of year spend is no longer possible
basserds
I thought that the Year End Spend was alive and well, but then I’ve only dealt with very small IT budgets. Anyway, these figures were arrived at over three fiscal years, probably 03-04, 04-05 and 05-06, when the YES was definitely going…
Also, the YES has been replaced by a New Year Splurge, when absolutely everything gets bought in April. I can almost hear Dell’s tills ringing already…
It is in the health service to the best of my knowledge but IT purchasing for the Silly Service has been centralised – you need a new PC? you go the the purchasing people same for a server – you spec it and they run the competition. Makes things a bit of a bugger when you are trying to justify dual graphics cards 4gb ram and dual majassive monitors – its alot easier when the guy who authorised it is getting the same for himself and sits at the next desk