The controller in social services division of a government organization, Tony Brown, believes that the implementation of participative budgeting process will lead to improvement in the productivity of the division’s departments. Therefore, he has implemented several budgetary procedures. Three of them are identified below:
1. An appropriation target figure is given to each department manager. This amount represents the maximum funding that each department can expect to receive in the next fiscal year.
2. Department managers develop their individual budgets and the controller’s staff consolidates the requests from the various departments into one budget for the entire division.
3. Upon final budget approval by the legislature, the controller’s staff allocates the appropriation to the various departments on instructions from the division manager. However, a specified percentage of each department’s appropriation is held back in anticipation of potential budget cuts and special funding needs. The amount and the use of this contingency fund is left to the discretion of the division manager.
Required:
1. Identify four deficiencies in Brown’s procedures for the budgetary process
2. For each deficiency identified in requirement (1), recommend how the deficiency can be corrected