The Lemon Fool

You can tell when a council hasn't spent all its money and it's getting near the end of the financial year because they go into overdrive on road repairs. On Friday on a five mile journey we had to wait at three different places whilst the lads brandishing the STOP/GO signs managed to co-ordinate enough to let traffic pass. I wouldn't mind but you just know that these last minute bodge jobs are only going to last until the next frost followed by a light shower and all the gubbins with which they've filled the hole will disintegrate and be washed away - back to square one.

R6

Twas ever thus.
I worked in The City, we had budgets... travel, entertainment, spend it or lose it next year.

A perverse and stupid way of accounting which incentivises waste; unspent this year should be carry-forwardable.

Instead we have botched road repairs or in our case, unnecessary client visits.
And, on the bright side, extra client lunches

V8

88V8 wrote:Twas ever thus.
I worked in The City, we had budgets... travel, entertainment, spend it or lose it next year.

A perverse and stupid way of accounting which incentivises waste; unspent this year should be carry-forwardable.

Instead we have botched road repairs or in our case, unnecessary client visits.
And, on the bright side, extra client lunches

V8

I thought it was just the public sector that worked like that. We of course had budgets in the private sector as well but we were rewarded for keeping below them and under no circumstances were they to be taken as carte blanche to spend them or lose them . In the next financial year we started from scratch again. I do not understand why the public sector or anyone else should work like that but I know the public sector does and we for some reason have just had our little road resurfaced as well. Unnecessary and wasteful especially when it was carried out during a lot of snow and they could not possibly do it properly.

Dod

I read the same happens with our foreign aid budget as the law passed by Parliament requires it to be spent with no ability to carry it forward. Utter madness.

The civil service was the same, use it or lose it. We weren'y even allowed to transfer budgets between categories so you could end up with a shortage in one area and surplus in another - total stupidity.

R6

In the'70s I knew two headteachers who told me ,separately, that as the end of the financial year approached ,they had to use up any residual funds as any unused budget would reduce the next year's budget.

marronier wrote:In the'70s I knew two headteachers who told me ,separately, that as the end of the financial year approached ,they had to use up any residual funds as any unused budget would reduce the next year's budget.

As a secondary schools teacher in the seventies, I can confirm that. All kinds of useless clobber got bought in haste during February and March, and then it would block up the cupboards for years while the staff tried to think of uses for it. All too often, the result was that we bought tons of sports equipment (which would all get used eventually), but we then went short of English textbooks because there were tight controls on which ones we were allowed to buy. (The education minister, a certain M Thatcher, had firm views on such matters. )

We were left in no doubt that our next year's budget would be cut if we failed to meet our designated spend. What a way to run an education system. Although I still don't think the national road maintenance system is any better.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

marronier wrote:In the'70s I knew two headteachers who told me ,separately, that as the end of the financial year approached ,they had to use up any residual funds as any unused budget would reduce the next year's budget.

As a secondary schools teacher in the seventies, I can confirm that. All kinds of useless clobber got bought in haste during February and March, and then it would block up the cupboards for years while the staff tried to think of uses for it. All too often, the result was that we bought tons of sports equipment (which would all get used eventually), but we then went short of English textbooks because there were tight controls on which ones we were allowed to buy. (The education minister, a certain M Thatcher, had firm views on such matters. )

We were left in no doubt that our next year's budget would be cut if we failed to meet our designated spend. What a way to run an education system. Although I still don't think the national road maintenance system is any better.

BJ

My aunt (Reception class) and uncle (Primary Headmaster), now long retired, told me that they once saw a short announcement offering generous offers for those who wished to investigate teaching practices in other countries. They applied, thinking they'd have no chance, and were surprised to find themselves both accepted with open arms! Nobody else had applied! They had a brilliant time and it opened their eyes a lot. Not to education, but rather where to visit when they retired!

Steve