ABSTRACT
A budget is a planned quantitative allocation of resources.1 This may be for budgeting funds, human resources, supplies, time, or space. For the purposes of this chapter we will be addressing the budgeting of financial resources. Budgeting formats selected for use have reflected particular intentions of budget officers. There are a number of budget formats that have been developed to accomplish both planning and control activities. There are single-purpose budgets that are used to control the single project as well as a budget to control the standing plan which can be reused. The single-purpose budget is often associated with Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and other similar programs that control the coordination of the timing of the execution of the various elements of a project by coordinating the rate of budgeted expenditures with a projected schedule of completion. These techniques will be explored later in this chapter. Historically when budgeting officials decided that central office manage-
ment was required for controlling expenditures, an object or line item budget was introduced. This was useful to prevent administrative abuses by listing all objects of expense and controlling the expenditures by limiting them to the purchase of the item or service specified. Unfortunately, object or line item budgets can also hamper innovative thinking and stifle managerial ingenuity. The necessity of having an effective budgetary system is increasingly clear
insofar as governmental management is concerned. All public institutions must cope with an environment in which the allocation of resources offers a continual contest between increasing demands and service costs along with diminished capability to pay for such services.
