ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the different approaches a public organization might take to prepare its budgets, the advantages and disadvantages of each and some practical implications. The word budget is from the old French word bougette meaning a small leather bag or purse. Jackson and Dewing published some research on the board composition and corporate governance of police authorities, the bodies of elected and appointed representatives that oversaw local police forces at the time. Incremental budgeting is probably the most basic approach to budget preparation by organizations in the public and private sectors. In the UK the public service agreements operated by the government from 1998 to 2007 were a form of budget-linked targets. The chapter considers medium-and long-term budgeting, and describes some practical issues connected with budgeting in the public sector. It explains what a budget is followed by a section about the specific features of budgeting in the public sector.
